IND vs SA | Ravichandran Ashwin, Jayant Yadav are not long-term ODI prospects, says Aakash Chopra
Ravichandran Ashwin was able to pick just one wicket from two matches against South Africa
|Former India cricketer turned commentator Aakash Chopra feels that Jayant Yadav and Ravichandran Ashwin cannot be India's future in ODI matches. He further added that India should be looking at Kuldeep Yadav once again as a wicket-taking option in the middle overs alongside Yuzvendra Chahal.
India recently lost a three match ODI series against South Africa by 3-0 as the opposition outperformed them in every department. The batsmen were not able to play big knocks while bowlers were also not very effective. Their failure in the ODI series against South Africa exposed a lot of problems in ODIs. Spin bowling was one of the issues of concern for the team. Ravichandran Ashwin picked one wicket in the series while Jayant Yadav went wicketless.Â
When India toured South Africa in 2018 they won the ODI series by 5-1 and Yuzvendra Chahal and Kuldeep Yadav played a key role in the series victory. Â
Ex-India cricketer Aakash Chopra feels that Ravichandran Ashwin and Jayant Yadav were not effective in the matches that they played.Â
“Our spin bowling has not been great. Ashwin was there with Yuzvendra Chahal and you took just three wickets in three matches. Jayant Yadav played, he was slightly unfortunate. But he cannot be your long-term ODI prospect. So Ashwin is not there, Jayant is not there,” Chopra said on his Youtube channel.
“When you went last time, you bowled with Kuldeep Yadav and Yuzvendra Chahal and you kept them on a tight leash. The opposing team kept a stranglehold on you, they took three wickets in one match and we took three wickets in the entire series. If we are not doing that penetrative bowling with spin, it means you need to make a change.”
Ravindra Jadeja missed the recent ODI series against South Africa as he was injured. Kuldeep Yadav picked 17 wickets when India toured South Africa in 2018. He has picked 18 wickets in seven fixtures against South Africa. Yuzvendra Chahal has 22 wickets in 10 ODIs against the same opposition. Chopra feels that India should be looking at Chahal and Yadav as wicket-taking option in middle overs.
"India definitely missed Jadeja but start thinking about Kuldeep or play two leg-spinners.Do anything but you need to get spinners who can pick wickets in the middle overs,” he concluded.
“Containment will not work, 55 runs in 10 overs is just not good enough. Honestly, you can get hit for 70 in 10 overs but three wickets should be there.”
