Thaindian News

Chennai, March 19 (IANS) With all the brouhaha over off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin’s inclusion in the team, India would do well to keep their collective focus on their Group B game against the West Indies here Sunday when the league phase of the ICC Cricket World Cup concludes.

India, with seven points in the kitty after five matches, are through to the quarterfinals along with England after Bangladesh lost to South Africa at Dhaka Saturday. South Africa will move to the knockout stage as group toppers while the West Indies are also through, even if they lose Sunday — but not by a massive margin.

A winning finish for India would put them in better heart for the shootout stage of the competition commencing March 23.

The 24-year old Ashwin, who made his ODI debut last year, has been as much in the news as say Sachin Tendulkar who is poised on 99 international centuries, and that too without having bowled a single ball in his maiden World Cup.

His continued absence in the playing eleven has confounded the discerning with no solid explanation coming forth from skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni or for that matter, any other decision-maker in the team.

Thus far, Ashwin has been overlooked in favour of leg-spinner Piyush Chawla whose return to the national side has been anything but impressive, with four wickets in three matches.

More significantly, England successfully fielded two off-spinners James Tredwell and Graeme Swann who shared seven wickets to beat the West Indies here Thursday.

Even otherwise, there is sufficient ground (not just his home turf Chepauk) for Ashwin’s inclusion Sunday. However, that is largely dependent on the bowling combination Dhoni has in mind.

Should Dhoni follow England’s ploy, then Ashwin would bowl in harness with the other off-spinner Harbhajan Singh who himself has not made any impact in the current World Cup with a tally of just five wickets from five matches.

Like Ashwin, Suresh Raina too has been kept on the shelf, wrapped up in cotton wool. There is a possibility of the flashy left-hander getting a game Sunday, given Yusuf Pathan’s poor form and a reported injury to Virender Sehwag.

Pathan, who has failed to fire in the five World Cup matches he has played so far, has a top score of 30 not out against Ireland and one wicket from 28 overs.

When asked about the playing eleven, Indian captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni said at the customary pre-match media conference: “You will have to wait till tomorrow, but everyone will get a game before the knock-out.”

Raina and Ashwin are the only two among the squad of 15 still to play a match in the ongoing World Cup.

Sehwag is said to be nursing an injury that he picked up in the game against South Africa that India lost. He did have a net session Saturday, and received some attention from the physio.

Dhoni confirmed that Sehwag was nursing an “allergic reaction on the right knee” and the team would decide on his inclusion either tonight or on Sunday, prior to the game.

On the other hand, the West Indies could rue the big chance they missed Thursday when they lost to England by 18 runs from winning positions. The game brought to fore some talented youngsters, like Andre Russell and Devendra Bishoo, in the Caribbean outfit that showed immense potential to trip higher-ranked teams.

The Windies attack has both pace and spin that can turn the game around, just like a few of their explosive batsmen like Chris Gayle, Kieron Pollard and rookie Russell.

The West Indies captain Darren Sammy would not disclose the team composition, but hoped to win the toss and bat first.

“We played England on a wicket that looks a lot similar. I think both teams would agree that it still had more runs. Nice to see in the second innings, the ball did spin a bit more.

“Hopefully, I will win the toss and bat first and look to exploit the spinning wicket bowling second,” Sammy said.

During the England game, the Windies sent out strong signals of what they can achieve with a little more maturity and experience. Their coach Ottis Gibson spoke about the need to be more resilient in tough situations and he would be hoping that his team will have plenty of it to come good against India.