‘Chahal would have done lot more damage … Ashwin didn’t end T20 WC well’: Dinesh Karthik

Ashwin took six wickets in five games at an average of 25.83 and an economy rate of 8.15. Three of those came in India’s penultimate game of the tournament against Zimbabwe.

Indian cricketers R Ashwin and Yuzvendra Chahal (FILE)

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Though he was selected ahead of Ravi Bishnoi in the T20 world cup squad, Yuzvendra Chahal didn’t play a single game in Australia. It had raised questions then, but India preferred R Ashwin over him. Now, Dinesh Karthik, who had made his national comeback for that tournament, has talked on the Chahal vs Ashwin debate.

“These are all calls that are taken by the captain and coach with the belief they had in a certain player. To be fair, Ashwin started the tournament well but probably didn’t end well. But Chahal would’ve definitely made a lot more damage, it could’ve been an interesting choice,” Karthik told Cricbuzz. “But hindsight is a very interesting thing to look at once the results come out.”

Before the tournament, it was interesting to track which legspinner India would pick to play in Australia. Would they like most other teams go for a quickish legspinner in Bishnoi? Or would they go for the experienced Chahal who is considerably slower through the air than Bishnoi. In the end, they went for Chahal but they never used him.

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India’s spin strategy in the world cup was more about containment and Ashwin and Axar Patel fit their bill.

Ashwin took six wickets in five games at an average of 25.83 and an economy rate of 8.15. Three of those came in India’s penultimate game of the tournament against Zimbabwe. He had two handy outings with the bat – that last-over thriller against Pakistan and a 6-ball 13 against Bangladesh.

Karthik ended his spin assessment thus: “All in all, if we look at the overall picture of the World Cup and Asia Cup, we expect a lot of better from Team India and that’s the right way to put it.”

Karthik himself didn’t have a good tournament: just 14 runs from 4 innings before he was dropped for the final two games.

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