Ashwin's injury- A blessing in disguise?

The news coming in suggests that Ravichandran Ashwin might be injured and will not be able to play the fifth and final Test. Will it make any significant difference? The answer is no. It may be a blessing in disguise instead. It's time for the world no.3 bowler in the Tests to play some overseas Test match. Ravindra Jadeja didn't play in South Africa and has not played in the England series yet. So Jadeja deserves a place in the playing eleven in place of Ashwin, even if he is fit to play.

To be honest, Ashwin hasn't done anything significant in this series. He has not been the same since the first Test at Edgbaston. At Edgbaston, he bowled with a lot of control and finesse. He was magnificent. He picked up 4/64 in the first innings of England and followed it by a 3/59 in the second innings. His match figure was 7/121, probably his best figures outside sub-continent. It seemed like this was the series that Ashwin will start to conquer the world. But then suddenly he went off the hook. He never bowled like the way he bowled in the first Test. He was bowling flatter, quicker and trying way too many variations.

Wicketless in the 2nd Test at Lord's, just 1 wicket in the 3rd test at Trent Bridge and the worst was at Southampton where he took only 3 wickets. I called it worst because in the same Test match Moeen Ali (England's second spinner) took 9 wickets. Ali kept bowling at the rough of the day 2 pitch and made Indian batsmen struggle. On day 3, the patch of rough was even more, but Ashwin found it hard to pitch the ball in that danger area. Instead, he was bowling his variations and was much quicker compared to Moeen Ali. Virat Kohli kept throwing the ball to Ashwin in the hope that India's premier off-spinner will turn it around for India but he failed.

If we look at the stats of the last one year of Ravindra Jadeja and R Ashwin, it's pretty much neck to neck. In last 12 months, both Ashwin and Jadeja had played 4 matches at home, Ashwin had picked up 17 wickets at a strike rate of 50.5, while Jadeja had picked 16 wickets at a strike rate of 48.6. In the meantime, Ashwin had played 6 overseas matches while Jadeja hasn't been tried once. Ashwin's performance in these 6 Test matches have not been satisfactory, he has picked up 18 wickets with the strike rate of 72.0. He has not been that effective with the bat either. In 6 matches 12 innings, he scored 216 runs at an average of 21.60. So high time for Jadeja to be tried in the foreign soil. At least he will be disciplined enough to utilize any sort of roughness on the pitch.

Maybe it's time for Ashwin to introspect. Next up is West Indies series at home and here he is a king. Wickets are waiting for him in that series. But most importantly Ashwin needs to be geared up for the Australia series. India will again go into the tour with him as the premier spin bowler. We all will be waiting for him to shine and achieve greatness.