You cannot take away the class – Rohit Sharma on Ravichandran Ashwin

India will take on Australia in the final ODI of the ongoing three-match series, and they will be buoyed by the return of Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli and Kuldeep Yadav to the squad.

With India having already sealed the series win, the hosts will be eager to give the senior players some game time and for the rest, try them out in various roles ahead of the big World Cup campaign. 

Rohit returns to the squad and will take over captaincy duties from KL Rahul, and it remains to be seen how Kuldeep Yadav is fit into the XI with Ravichandran Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja having played the first two ODIs. 

With the final World Cup squad set to be announced today, there’s a lot of talk around whether Ashwin will be added to the 15-man unit or Axar Patel will retain his spot. 

Ahead of the final ODI, Rohit Sharma heaped praises on the seasoned off-spinner, however, they were no allusions to a concrete future.

Talking about Ashwin, Rohit said, “You cannot take away the class and the experience that the individual has over the years and in the last couple of games we saw how well he bowled.”

He further added, “He's got a lot of variation up his sleeves and in case there is a chance, we can look at a lot of things. So hopefully, the way things are at this point in time, it does well for us because we've got all the backups and everything ready as well.”

The Indian captain concluded by saying, “We've given them enough game time, a lot of time in the middle as well. So pretty much happy with how things have planned out in the last couple of weeks."