Ashwin, Jadeja rested for England T20Is

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Ravindra Jadeja
© BCCI

India’s frontline spinners Ravichandran Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja have been rested from the three-match Twenty20 International (T20I) series against England, the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), announced in a statement on Monday (January 23). Legspinner Amit Mishra and right-arm offspinner Parvez Rasool have been picked to replace the duo in the squad.

The selectors decided to rest Ashwin and Jadeja after consulting the Indian team management, following the home side’s 2-1 series win in the One-Day Internationals. India have been managing the workloads of both the spinners since the start of the home season. Following the 3-0 series win over New Zealand in the Tests, both Ashwin and Jadeja were not picked for the subsequent ODI series in order to keep them fresh for the five Tests against England.

The duo was brought back for the England ODIs though to give them a handful of games in the format before the Champions Trophy. While Jadeja picked up four wickets in the three games, Ashwin drew a blank in Pune and Kolkata but picked up three in the second game in Cuttack. With the one-off Test against Bangladesh slated to start on February 9, just eight days after the final T20I, they have been withdrawn yet again since India are also scheduled to play four Tests against Australia immediately.

Mishra was already present in the ODI squad for the England series but failed to get a game as the team management preferred to use just two spinners. Rasool has been rewarded for his performances in the Ranji Trophy where he was among the leading wicket-takers with 38 scalps, apart from averaging 39 with the bat. He also picked up three wickets against England in the second tour game. Yuzvendra Chahal, who made his ODI and T20I debut in Zimbabwe last year, is the third spinner in the squad. The first T20I will be played on January 26 in Kanpur.

India’s T20I squad: Lokesh Rahul, Mandeep Singh, Virat Kohli(c), MS Dhoni, Yuvraj Singh, Suresh Raina, Rishabh Pant, Hardik Pandya, Amit Mishra, Parvez Rasool, Yuzvendra Chahal, Manish Pandey, Jasprit Bumrah, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Ashish Nehra