Axar Patel is injured, but Indian captain Rohit Sharma
said on Tuesday that Ravichandran Ashwin’s consistency in the first two ODIs
has given him peace of mind that he has backup options for the World Cup in
case of an emergency. Patel is now recovering at the NCA after sustaining a
left quadricep injury prior to the Asia Cup final matchup against Sri Lanka
earlier this month. If Patel doesn’t recover in time, the discussion over
whether veteran off-spinner Ashwin should be included in India’s 15-member
squad has also been fuelled by his performance in the first two one-day
internationals against Australia.
The cut-off date for teams to finalise their 15-member
WC is September 28.
“He has got the class. He has got the experience of
playing the sport and handling the pressure. It is just that he has not played
ODIs in the last year or so,” said during the pre-match press meet.
“But you cannot take away the class and the experience
the individual has over the years and in the last couple of games we saw how
well he bowled,” Rohit said.
Rohit expressed satisfaction over Ashwin’s effort and
said it indeed gives them an option to fall back upon. He expressed happiness
over the fact that the Indian team has been able to overcome challenges with
success.
“I am very happy with the last 10 ODIs that we played.
A lot of guys came back into form (by) scoring lots of runs and the bowlers are
taking lots of wickets. In the last few games, we saw the guys who came back
from injuries have proven their fitness,” he said.
“(We are) pretty much settled…how we stand, where we
stand. Now, it is about taking this whole situation forward in the best
possible way,” he added.