T20 WC 2021: Chahal OUT, Ashwin IN, as India complete a full circle with regards to their preference for spinners in white-ball cricket

Yuzvendra Chahal joined the Royal Challengers Bangalore set-up in the United Arab Emirates a day after he was omitted by the national selection committee from the 15-member Indian squad for the upcoming T20 World Cup.

Chahal joined the set-up sporting Team India’s mask. He later reacted to a Twitter post from his IPL franchise with a couple of emoticons which basically meant, "Sun will rise again."

Meanwhile, off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin finally found light at the end of a very long tunnel. He earned a recall for the white-ball set-up after a gap of four years.

It was in August 2017 that Ashwin, along with Ravindra Jadeja, were deemed not good enough for limited-overs cricket. Then, India opted to invest in the wrist-spin duo of Chahal and Kuldeep Yadav.

Jadeja made a return to the set-up a year later during the Asia Cup after Hardik Pandya was ruled out due to injury. It has taken Ashwin three years to join his former partner-in-crime in colored clothing.

Both Jadeja and Ashwin are back in the T20 squad for the quadrennial event and Chahal and Kuldeep are out of reckoning. It is fair to say that India have completed a full circle with regards to their preferences for spinners in limited-overs cricket.

It is worth pointing out that Ashwin hasn’t replaced Chahal in the World Cup squad. The off-spinner has purely come in place of Washington Sundar, who is currently out of contention due to injury.

Chahal has been replaced by Rahul Chahar in the squad. But it is still fascinating to see how India will most likely end up playing the duo of Ashwin-Jadeja in their first choice XI. This is despite having invested in the wrist-spin duo of Chahal and Kuldeep for the best part of the last four years.

Yuzvendra Chahal and Kuldeep Yadav have had an alarming decline in fortunes international cricket since the 2019 World Cup

There are good enough reasons behind the duo’s exclusion from the set-up for the marquee quadrennial event. Chahal and Kuldeep were the talk of the town in limited-overs cricket between 2017-19. But it is fair to say that over a period of time, batsmen around the world figured them out. With them not boasting of ability with the bat, India started to look for spin-bowling options who could also contribute with the willow.

Hence, Ravindra Jadeja came into the reckoning during the 2018 Asia Cup. The final nail in the coffin as far as the duo playing together in the same XI was hammered after England’s batsmen took them to the cleaners during the 2019 World Cup fixture.

Post the 2019 World Cup, India opted to play with one of the two wrist-spinners. With Kuldeep in the midst of a sharp decline, it was Chahal, who’d get the nod ahead of his former partner-in-crime. The fact that Kuldeep couldn’t even buy a game for his IPL franchise Kolkata Knight Riders also didn’t go in favor of the left-arm leggie.

However, since the start of January 2020, Chahal’s performances also started to nosedive. In 13 T20Is since the aforementioned period, the Haryana leggie has managed just 11 wickets at an average of 41.36 and an economy rate of 8.92.

Chahal had a brilliant IPL campaign last year in the UAE where he snapped 21 wickets in 15 games at an average/eco-rate of 19.28/7.08. When he pulled off a match-winning performance for India in the first T20I against Australia later that year, as a concussion substitute, one felt that the 29-year-old was slowly regaining his rhythm.

As it turned out, it proved to be a false dawn as he struggled in the next two T20Is and then in the first three games of the 5-match series against England on home soil earlier this year. He was eventually dropped from playing XI for Rahul Chahar.

The final nail in the coffin came during the IPL, where Chahal managed just 4 wickets in 7 games at an average/eco-rate of 47.50/8.26. He had an opportunity to boost his claim during the Sri Lankan tour but Covid-19 put off those plans. With Rahul Chahar grabbing the opportunity with both hands, the writing was on the wall for the RCB bowler.

Ravinchandran Ashwin, meanwhile, continued to evolve with the changing demands of the format during his stints with Punjab Kings and Delhi Capitals in the IPL after his snub from the white-ball set-up.

Ashwin claimed 15 wickets in 14 innings at an average of 26.33 in the 2019 IPL. He backed it up with a decent stint the following season which took place in the UAE - 13 wickets in 15 innings at 30.07.

His record in the T20 World Cups is outstanding. The off-spinner is the leading wicket-taker for India in the marquee event. He has 20 wickets in 15 outings at an average of 16.70 and an economy rate of 6.18.

Good things happen to people who wait, and Ashwin’s recall to the T20 set-up after a gap of four years is a perfect example of that.

As for Chahal and for that matter, Kuldeep, it’s time to go back to the drawing board and plot the seeds of another comeback into the national team.