WATCH: Ravichandran Ashwin’s greatest delivery in ICC T20 World Cup History
India on Wednesday announced the squad for the ICC T20 World Cup starting next month in the UAE and there was a nice surprise for Ravichandran Ashwin’s fans as he was recalled into the T20I side after a long time.
Ashwin last played in T20Is on 9 July, 2017 against West Indies. He turned out to be quite expensive in that match as he conceded 39 runs in his four overs, that too without picking up any wicket. Performances like that served as the reason behind his omission from the squad but he changed his bowling completely after that and has a lot more variations up his sleeve than before.
Since then, he has featured in 48 IPL games and has picked up 39 wickets at a good economy rate of 7.67. Ashwin’s variations and experience will give him the edge over the batsmen in the UAE, where the tracks are expected to aid the spinners.
Ashwin was always a good T20 bowler, though. He earned fame with his performances for Chennai Super Kings in the IPL and then went on to play for India in all formats. He has featured in three T20 World Cups as well and has bowled many memorable spells.
One such spell was against South Africa in the 2014 T20 World Cup when he bowled an absolutely unplayable delivery to outfox Hashim Amla.
It was the last over of the powerplay in that game at Dhaka. Ashwin bowled a carrom ball on the leg stump to Amla and it turned a mile to go and hit the top of off-stump.
Watch Ravichandran Ashwin’s Ball of The 2014 T20 World Cup Here
#IndvsSA today, Last time v playd ag SA in #WT20 match @ashwinravi99 anna gave us stunning #BalloftheCentury to Amla pic.twitter.com/aWyKehkOVo
— Ashwin Anna Fans (@ashwin_fans) March 12, 2016
That wicket came when South Africa were scoring at a rate of nearly 9 runs per over. Ashwin went on to pick two more wickets of Faf du Plessis and AB de Villiers and ended with excellent bowling figures of 4-0-22-3 to his name.
South Africa posted a daunting total of 172/4 but India managed to chase it down with five balls and six wickets to spare. It was Virat Kohli who made the chase possible with a beautiful 44-ball knock of 72 runs.