Ashwin replaces Axar in India’s final squad

Ravichandran Ashwin, 37, India's star off-spinner, was named in India’s final 15-member World Cup squad following a freak injury to all rounder Axar Patel during the Asia Cup. Axar is still recovering from the quadriceps strain that he suffered while batting against Bangladesh in Colombo and will need some more time to be fit.
This was a call-up that Ashwin, normally meticulous about his preparations for any series, was just not prepared for. Even though he was told by the team management that he could be called if necessary around August, when the call first came, the offie said he wanted time to prepare with the white ball. The 36-year-old rushed to the National Cricket Academy (NCA), trained with Sairaj Bahutule, and joined the Indian team for the Australia series while Washington Sundar played the Asia Cup final.
Now, with his inclusion in the World Cup squad, Ashwin becomes the second player - after Virat Kohli - from the 2011-World Cup winning team. In that World Cup, the Chennai offie, still in his early 20s, only got to play a couple of games - against West Indies and Australia - and took the crucial wicket of Shane Watson in the quarterfinal while Harbhajan Singh remained the No. 1 spinner.
In 2015, though, Ashwin played the ODI World Cup in Australia, where he took 13 wickets in eight matches. But following a hammering in the 2017 Champions Trophy final against Pakistan, India shifted to a wrist-spinner policy and Ashwin couldn’t make the 2019 World Cup squad.
While there had been brief white ball comebacks for him after that, Ashwin, still India’s No. 1 spinner in Tests, played only a couple of ODIs in the last two years. “It doesn’t matter if I don’t play for India, I will always be India’s No. 1 fan,” he said in August, as chances of playing a World Cup looked increasingly bleak.
But all that turned around after the Axar injury and the offie was extremely impressive in the couple of ODIs he played against Australia.