Indian No. 1 test off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin has been ruled out of the upcoming Deodhar Trophy to be held in Dharamsala from March 4-8. The Deodhar Trophy was a opportunity for Ashwin to showcase his 50-over bowling skills and convince the selectors for making his comeback in limited-over, whose preferred choices in the shorter format are Yuzvendra Chahal and Kuldeep Yadav.

The motivation level for a senior player to play a particular format diminishes if he knows that his chances of immediate comeback is next to nil. The selection committee decided to include another off-spinner Shahbaz Nadeem as the replacement. The selectors have named Ankit Bawne as captain of the India ‘A’ team and suggested that Akshdeep Nath will move to India B squad to facilitate the change. “Ashwin has a niggling issue and the BCCI Medical Team has advised him a week’s rest,” acting secretary Amitabh Chaudhary was quoted as saying in a BCCI press release. However it was not specified what exactly is the niggle.

Squads for Deodhar Trophy

India A: Ankit Bawne (Captain), Prithvi Shaw, Unmukt Chand, Shubman Gill, Ricky Bhui, Suryakumar Yadav, Ishan Kishan (wk), Krunal Pandya, Mohammed Shami, Navdeep Saini, Basil Thampi, Kulwant Khejroliya, Amandeep Khare, Rohit Rayudu, Shahbaz Nadeem.

India B: Shreyas Iyer (Captain), Ruturaj Gaikwad, Abhimanyu Easwaran, Manoj Tiwary, Siddhesh Lad, KS Bharat (wk), Jayant Yadav, Dharmendrasinh Jadeja, Hanuma Vihari, Siddarth Kaul, Khaleel Ahmed, Harshal Patel, Umesh Yadav, Rajat Patidar, Akshdeep Nath.

Rest of India: Karun Nair (capt), Prithvi Shaw, Abhimanyu Easwaran, R Samarth, Mayank Agarwal, Hanuma Vihari, KS Bharat (wk), Ravindra Jadeja, Jayant Yadav, Shahbaz Nadeem, Anmolpreet Singh, Siddarth Kaul, Ankit Rajpoot, Navdeep Saini, Atit Sheth.