R Ashwin very much in Team India frame for 2019 World Cup: Bharat Arun

PTI

New Delhi: Ravichandran Ashwin's absence from Team India's ODI series squad against Sri Lanka made the entire Indian cricket fraternity curious as to whether the offie is a part of the team's limited overs plans or he will remain just a Test specialist. As far as the bowling coach Bharat Arun is concerned, the Tamil Nadu-born spinner is still in frame to be a part of the Indian squad at the 2019 World Cup.

Arun insisted that Ashwin despite playing only 15 ODI matches since 2015 World Cup, is very much in the scheme of things.

Asked if he is in scheme of things for the 2019 World Cup, Arun said, "This question should be asked to the selectors but as bowling coach I think he is an extremely talented bowler. Even if you look at his last ODI which he played in West Indies, he has got 3 for 28."

"He (Ashwin) is very skilful. I don't want to look at what has happened so far but he is definitely part of the ODI team. We would also like to give a lot of opportunities to other bowlers as well (hence the rotation), then we can have a long-term plan in place and then we will take a call accordingly," said Arun.

Earlier, Harbhajan Singh had questioned Ashwin omission from the squad being termed as a 'rest', claiming that since bowler is going to play Country Cricket in England, it really can't be called a rest.

"I am not sure if R Ashwin has been rested or dropped. We have seen reports that Ashwin has been rested but at the same time in his rest period he is going to England to play county cricket. So I don't know what kind of rest it is going to be. I am not sure whether he has been rested or dropped", the Turbanator had said.

As far as Team India's bowling unit is concerned, though Arun wasn't a part of the support staff in the past one year, he still believes that the bowling unit has improved tremendously in the last couple of years.

"If you look at the bowling unit as a whole there has been tremendous improvement since the last couple of years. But looking ahead to the 2019 World Cup, we will need to have back up options for every bowler that we have. There are enough bowlers in our country to provide that bench strength," the India bowling coach added.