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Should India play both Ashwin and Jadeja in Australia? | Why India should play both Ashwin and Jadeja in the Test series against Australia

The Indian team was handed a rude shock as the selectors opted to keep Ishant Sharma out of the scheme of things for the upcoming Border-Gavaskar series in Australia. The pacer had done remarkably well in the previous tour in which the Virat Kohli-led side had emerged victorious. However, an injury during the 13^th edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL) means that the Blues will be missing their most seasoned pacer in the all-important series. Now, the team management has quite a puzzle to solve in their bowling order.

The pace trio of led by Ishant and steered by the duo of Mohammed Shami and Jasprit Bumrah had worked wonders for the Indians in 2018/19. Now, they are compelled to make a change in combination and as things stand now, Umesh Yadav will feature in the playing XI taking over Ishant’s role. However, could the Indian team have opted for a slightly left-field choice by going in with two spinners in Ravichandran Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja? Or maybe factor in Kuldeep Yadav as a supportive spinner in place of one of the two of them? Let us ponder upon that scenario.

Playing two spinners in a test Down Under has been an unconventional notion that not many teams have adopted. The pitches over there are certainly deemed to be more suitable for quicks and teams naturally prefer utilizing the utmost potential of their arsenal of pacers. In the absence of Ishant though, the Indian team has to make a choice between keeping the combination of the attack intact by going after a pacer or picking their best bowlers for the game. If they go for the latter option, then it could be argued that Ashwin and Jadeja are far better test bowlers than the likes of Umesh Yadav, Navdeep Saini and Mohammed Siraj.

But, another fact of matter is that the nature of pitches in Australia are changing gradually and very few tracks turn out to be juicy and ferocious that make the batsmen suspect to facing chin music. Like for example, the pitch in Perth last time around. In the very next game, the Melbourne pitch turned out to be an absolute dead track as one could see Mitchell Starc’s delivery not carrying to the wicketkeeper and instead reaching Tim Paine with an additional bounce ahead of him.

Since January 2016, Nathan Lyon with 93 scalps has been the second highest wicket-taker in tests in Australia, only behind Mitchell Starc who has 104 dismissals to his name. The four Test matches are slated to be played at Adelaide Oval, Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane. In the given time-frame, Lyon is the highest wicket-taker in Sydney (26) and the second highest wicket-taker in Adelaide (23) and Melbourne (12). He is even the highest wicket-taker in Perth (14), though it is known to be a pacer’s paradise. Of course, much of these statistics can be attributed to Lyon’s personal brilliance too and it is a feat that other players can find difficult to replicate.

However, these numbers do sort of indicate that spinners might turn out to be quite useful if utilized efficiently in the new Australian tracks. Most of the pitches turn out to be flat, which assist fast bowlers only a bit initially.

Later on, it is upon the pacers to persistently chase the same accurate line and length and bowl in the corridor of uncertainty. Ishant stood apart in this facet, as his tremendous ability to hold things up at one end allowed him to keep the Aussie batsmen at their toes by hardly giving them away any freebies. Umesh Yadav can be fantastic in short spells, as his home record shows, but his performances overseas do not inspire much confidence. Saini and Siraj are too new to the circuit to be thrown into the heat of action straightaway.

Instead, the likes of Ashwin and Jadeja are well-versed with maintaining a tenacious, perseverant line and length for a considerable period of time in whites. They have bowled in tandem for the better part of the previous decade in tests in India, with an undeniably brilliant degree of success. They complement each other well, hunting in a pair which is quite important to scalp wickets against players like Steve Smith and Marnus Labuschagne who most likely settle on the crease for the long haul.

Ashwin does not have a particularly excellent record in Australia, but it is mostly attributed to his debut tour to the country in 2011/12 and then indifferent form in 2014/15. He played an integral role in the victory in the Adelaide in 2018/19, taking three wickets each across the two innings with an economy rate of 1.68 and 1.74 respectively. Five of the six players he dismissed were from the top/middle order whereas his final wicket of Josh Hazlewood was critical as that ended the Australian inning and allowed India to take a lead in the series. Unfortunately, the off-spinner had to sit out of the next three matches due to injury issues.

On the other hand, Jadeja played the last two matches of the series and took seven wickets in three innings. He bowled at an economy rate of 2.25, and bowled long spells as he delivered 89 overs in three outings. Moreover, Jadeja’s batting form needs to be optimized currently given that the middle-order will be slightly weakened in Kohli’s absence. The southpaw has had a batting average of 41, 45.6 and 62.86 in 2017, 2018 and 2019 respectively. He batted at a strike rate of 67.49, 60.64 and 61.62 in the three calendar years and scored 10 half centuries along with a solitary century in total.

The southpaw has gradually developed to become a batsman who can bat for a long period of time in Test cricket. In limited-overs, his attacking capabilities have enhanced drastically and that was particularly visible in the recently concluded IPL and the ODI and T20I series against the Aussies. Combining both these abilities, he can become a real asset with the bat in the lower-order. In the current run of form, Jadeja can arguably make it to the test team solely as a batsman and bowler too. That is perhaps the greatest testament to the improvements that he has made in his playing style in recent years.

Moreover, the Indian bowlers have always been culpable of conceding too many runs to the opposition’s tail-enders. It is a pattern that has cost India many a overseas matches and it is coupled by India’s own inability to bat deep in foreign conditions. Jadeja’s batting will help neutralize the additional runs that the Aussie tail-enders add to their tally and also significantly strengthen the Indian batting order lower down the order.

For India to go with the duo of Ashwin and Jadeja, the first step would be identifying the changing nature of Australian tracks. It needs to be a bit flexible in terms of the approach towards the game and not rigidly stick to a fixed plan as such. The batting friendly pitches that the team will come across barring Brisbane are much akin to the tracks over in India. So why not go with a combination that has delivered the desired results at home too?

Ashwin has grown wiser with the ball over a period of time and Jadeja’s tenacity consistently remains the same. They are well aware of making the best use of conditions, donning the aggressor’s role or even playing the supportive cast as and when necessary. Surely, they are not going to leak runs aplenty and will be getting into the mix of wickets as per the condition of the pitches. Moreover, they thrive whilst bowling together and will be best-placed to make use of the worn out tracks in the second innings. Discipline and consistency is of utmost importance in Test cricket when a team encounters dead pitches where wickets are hard to come by. That, along with Jadeja’s incredible batting prowess down the order makes for a combination that is worth trying out at least for two matches in the series.

The Indian think-tank does not seem keen on exploring this possibility as of now.

Written by Tarkesh Jha. Follow Tarkesh on Twitter today.