R Ashwin replaces injured Axar Patel in India’s World Cup 2023 squad
The Indian Cricket team has been forced to make a change to their World Cup 2023 squad as left-arm spinner Axar Patel is likely to take longer to recover from his injury. Notably, Patel suffered a left quadriceps strain during the Super fours game against Bangladesh in Asia Cup 2023 and has been out of the squad since then.
Veteran off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin has been announced as Patel’s replacement for the World Cup scheduled to begin in India from October 05. Ashwin recently made a comeback to the ODI side after 21 months in the recent series against Australia and shone with the ball in the second ODI. Notably, Ashwin finished as the joint second-highest wicket-taker in the recent series having picked four wickets in two innings at an average of 22 and an economy of 5.17.
Ashwin has played 115 ODIs in his career so far and picked 155 wickets at an average of 33.20 and an economy of 4.94. The 37-year-old has immense experience of playing major tournaments as he was a part of the 2011 and 2015 World Cup as well. He has picked 17 wickets from ten matches played in ODI World Cup at an average of 24.88 and an economy of 4.36.
India will start their World Cup campaign with a warm up fixture against England in Guwahati followed by another warm-up game against Netherlands on October 03 in Thiruvananthapuram. The Rohit Sharma-led side will lock horns with Australia in their opening league fixture on Sunday, October 08 at MA Chidambaram Stadium, Chennai.
Updated squad: Rohit Sharma (c), Hardik Pandya (vc), Shubman Gill, Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer, KL Rahul, Ravindra Jadeja, Shardul Thakur, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Siraj, Kuldeep Yadav, Mohammed Shami, Ravichandran Ashwin Ishan Kishan, Suryakumar Yadav.
