Former India off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin revealed his ideal team for the 2027 ODI World Cup, omitting wicketkeeper-batter Sanju Samson and teenage batting phenom Vaibhav Sooryavanshi in favour of a few unexpected choices.
Ashwin supported a core group of seasoned players to lead India’s campaign in the prestigious competition in an interview with Cricinfo. In addition to adding Shubman Gill, Shreyas Iyer, KL Rahul, and Ishan Kishan to his batting line, he kept veterans Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli.
Ashwin also stated that he was confident Gill would remain India’s captain, since the young player is anticipated to guide the team into the upcoming ODI World Cup.
The former spinner chose Kuldeep Yadav as his preferred front-line spinner and Hardik Pandya and Axar Patel for the all-rounders’ positions. Mohammed Siraj, Harshit Rana, and Jasprit Bumrah were part of his pace attack.
It’s interesting to note that Ashwin put a number of players in the “maybe” category, acknowledging that he wasn’t sure if they would make the final roster. Yashasvi Jaiswal, Ruturaj Gaikwad, Varun Chakaravarthy, Ravindra Jadeja, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Mohammed Shami, Arshdeep Singh, and Prasidh Krishna were among those on the list.
Ashwin supports the comeback of Bhuvneshwar Kumar
Despite the veteran pacer’s absence from the format since 2022, Ashwin’s backing for Bhuvneshwar Kumar’s return to India’s ODI setup was one of the discussion’s main talking points.
Ashwin said that before the squad travels to South Africa, India’s thought tank should get in touch with Bhuvneshwar and make sure he has enough cricket in all forms to prepare him for the difficulties of the 2027 World Cup.
The right-arm pacer was crucial to the Royal Challengers. Bengaluru won the IPL twice in a row, taking 45 wickets at an economy rate of 8.56 and an average of 21.87 in 30 games during the previous two seasons.
Bhuvneshwar has taken 141 wickets at an average of 35.11 while playing for India in 121 ODIs. His economy rate of 5.08 highlights his ability with the new ball, and his best results in the format are still 5/42.
