Ashwin also praised KL Rahul for his performance in Asia Cup 2023.
The veteran recalled that India was a dominant side back in 2013-14 with the spinners playing a massive role but it all changed with the implementation of the new rules.
With two new balls from each end, and only five fielders inside the 30-yard circle from overs 10-40, the game tilted in favor of batters and was one of the main reasons why the games started becoming quite high-scoring.
“Team India was dominating ODI cricket in the period during 2013-14. One of the main reasons for that was we did not have 5 fielders inside the circle rule and the two new balls rule. I somewhere feel India's dominance with spin was choking world cricket.
(Ravindra) Jadeja and I were the two spinners at that time. Yuvraj (Singh) and Yusuf (Pathan) used to chip in with some overs. With four fielders inside the circle, it was very difficult to get away in the middle overs. But then they implemented the two new balls rule and all brought the 5 fielders inside the circle rule. Once they did that, the 240, 250, 260 games disappeared," Ashwin said on his official YouTube channel.
Meanwhile, he praised KL Rahul for his performance since returning from injury in the ongoing Asia Cup 2023.
“Apparently KL Rahul was not supposed to play that game. Shreyas Iyer was going to play that game initially. I have always maintained that KL Rahul at No. 5 is a lock. ODI cricket should have its ebbs and flows. KL Rahul is giving us the stability with the bat in the middle order.
That's why batting in the middle order is difficult. MS Dhoni nailed that art. I am not comparing MS Dhoni and KL Rahul at all. But I feel he is slowly mastering his role perfectly," he explained.