Even as Ravichandran Ashwin has made a comeback to India’s T20I squad for the World Cup and is a first-choice pick for DC, the former India cricketer Sanjay Manjrekar has denounced the veteran off-spinner’s bowling prowess in white-ball cricket.
For Manjrekar, the Capitals are better off playing experienced wrist-spinner Amit Mishra ahead of Ashwin alongside in-form left-arm spinner Axar Patel as he can give them more wickets through the middle-overs.
Ashwin, who played only five of DC’s eight games during the Indian leg of IPL 2021 before leaving the tournament’s bio-bubble, didn’t have the best of starts to the UAE leg. The 35-year-old conceded 22 runs off his 2.2 overs against Sunrisers Hyderabad on Wednesday.
But Ashwin was back in his element on Saturday versus the Rajasthan Royals, delivering an extremely tight spell of 1/20 in DC’s successful defence of their modest score of 154/6.
With 52 wickets in 46 T20Is for India at 6.97 rpo and 140 wickets from 161 IPL matches at 6.89 rpo, Ashwin is hailed as one of the finest T20 spinners around. But Manjrekar said he is “not a big fan” of him in the white-ball arena.
“I was a little surprised that they played Ashwin ahead of Amit Mishra. I don’t think Ashwin bowled too well. I am not a big fan of Ashwin in white-ball cricket. So if they can get Mishra in, he becomes that wrist spinner that is always a game-changer in T20 cricket,”
the former India batsman turned commentator was quoted as saying by Cricket Addictor.
Manjrekar pressed his case in favour of Mishra, adding that such “low profile players tend to get a raw deal” from the teams that they are part of.
Mishra, like Ashwin, has been one of the greats of IPL cricket with 166 wickets from 154 games and an economy rate of 7.35. He played 4 of DC’s eight games during the Indian leg of IPL 2021 and took six wickets at 7.78 runs per over.
