India’s ace off-spinner R Ashwin made his comeback to the ODI side after almost 20 months for the bilateral series against Australia, which serves as a dress rehearsal for the side's opening game in the World Cup next month.
He was included in the first ODI between India and Australia which is being played at Mohali on September 22, 2023.
Akshar Patel suffered a hamstring injury during the Bangladesh match in the recent Asia Cup 2023 in Sri Lanka. This led to the Indian team management calling up Washington Sundar into the side and was included in the XI for the final against Sri Lanka, which India won by 10 wickets.
Sundar continued to remain a part of the squad for the series against Australia but Ashwin was picked ahead of the youngster for the first ODI in Mohali.
And now India keeper-batter Dinesh Karthik has revealed that Team India had approached Ashwin before Sundar for the Asia Cup final as well, but the veteran spinner refused to fly to Sri Lanka as he wasn't “match ready.”
“With a little inside information I know, I'll end up defending Rohit, Ajit, and Rahul Dravid here. They called up R Ashwin first at the Asia Cup final. They had a conversation and Ashwin felt he wasn't match ready yet. So, he said it's better if I don't come to this game because Washington was playing. He was playing in local tournaments in Chennai and he was in NCA. So, they sent Sundar for that one game,” Karthik said on Cricbuzz.
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He also revealed why Ashwin was chosen ahead of Sundar in the Mohali ODI against Australia.
“Then, Ashwin played a couple of local club matches, and then, they picked him. That was the whole conversation. Their first choice at that point as well was Ashwin. I understand Washington could've been misled a bit, but they chose Ashwin first,” Karthik added.
Meanwhile, Ashwin in a video shared by BCCI, had revealed that he was kept in a loop by the board ever since the Test series against West Indies in August. He said that the team management asked him to be ready for the ODIs if a chance came up.
