Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli and Yuvraj Singh did the trick by setting up a 324-run target against Pakistan on June 4. Sarfraz Ahmed and company collapsed to another embarrassing defeat against the men in blue.
Then against Sri Lanka, Shikhar Dhawan and MS Dhoni fired to take India to an imposing total. But in the bowling department, things looked weak for India as Kusal Perrera and Angelo Mathews took Sri Lanka to a thumping victory. Did India miss Ravichandran Ashwin? Well, clearly they did.
Well, believe it or not, playing the Chennai off-spinner against South Africa can work wonders.
If you look carefully, South Africa have six left-handed batsmen in their line-up. And teasing a left-handed batsman is relatively easier for an off-spinner. Ashwin can easily dominate more than half of the Protean side.
India are anyway clearly playing an extra batsman in their squad. Taking India to an imposing total is fine, but then backing it up in the bowling department in equally important. And Virat Kohli doesn't have a better bowler than Ashwin to chip in.
Plus, if you look at Ashwin's performance in the practice games, he has done extremely well and is in prime form.?
Even South African legend Shaun Pollock feels that Ashwin would be helpful in creating useful variations against AB de Villiers' men.?
He said, ¡°I¡¯m sure India will change their side; I think they will bring Ashwin in to create some variation, especially after the way we played against the (Pakistan) spinners. It would make sense for them to get more spin options in.¡±
Lets hope Ashwin's inclusion can work wonders for Team India now.