Jump cut to the ongoing One-Day International series against England. Ashwin is no more the same bowler who was unplayable with the red ball. In the new blue jersey of India and with the white leather in hand, Ashwin is not even close to his shadow in the Tests.

In the first outing at Pune last Sunday, Ashwin failed to pick up a wicket and gave away 63 runs from his 10 overs.

If the same continues, he just might be axed from the ODI side. Here we list five reasons why Ashwin is under pressure to keep his place in the ODI team.

#1 Stiff competition from other spinners

To keep Ashwin in the side, India’s new limited-overs captain Virat Kohli had to drop Amit Mishra in the Pune ODI. Now, Mishra was India’s man-of-the-match in the game prior to the one in Pune where he had bamboozled New Zealand with his spin.

In that series decider, Mishra had picked 5/18 to win his side the game at Vizag. Also on Indian pitches against touring sides, a wrist spinner is always handy as he gets more turn and bounce. Also, foreign players fail to pick the googly of Mishra who disguises it brilliantly.

Ashwin also faces competition from the likes of left-arm spinner Axar Patel and leg-spinner Yuzvendra Chahal who play’s for Kohli’s IPL side Royal Challengers Bangalore. Now, Kohli is quite a fan of Chahal and if Ashwin’s off form continues he might just rope the leggie into the side.

#2 From 13 January 2016 to 18 January 2017 Ashwin has zero ODI wickets

Though he played just two ODIs in the time frame the statistics are quite shocking. He grabbed his last ODI wickets in Perth on January 12th, 2016.

It was a One-Day International against Australia and Ashwin grabbed the wickets of centurion George Bailey and Glenn Maxwell. But his wickets did not help India’s cause as they lost the game by 5 wickets with four balls remaining.

In the next game at the Gabba, he went wicketless giving away 60 runs from his 10 overs. India lost that game too with Australia winning by 7 wickets. What’s interesting is that during that whole One-Day series Ashwin never looked like he was the star Indian spinner.

#3 His last five-for?

For the record, the star Indian spinner has never picked up a five-wicket haul in ODI cricket. His best performance with the ball in the format was in a World Cup 2015 game against the United Arab Emirates (UAE) at Perth where he pocketed figures of 4/25. He hasn’t another four-wicket haul in his ODI career.

His next best figures in ODI cricket is 3/28 versus England in 2011 when the two sides locked horns at the Eden Gardens. On a track known for assisting the spinners, Ashwin picked up three crucial wickets off his nine overs to give India the win.

#4 Giving away plenty of runs

In the last three matches, Ashwin’s figures read 0/63, 0/60, 2/68. Now as a captain you don’t want your premier spinner to go give away runs that easily.

Sometimes, it can get difficult to pick up wickets but there can be no excuses for giving above six runs an over that too if you are a veteran.

His career economy rate shows an average 4.87 but it doesn’t highlight the fact that when he has a bad day, he can leak runs like a faulty tap. The highest he has ever given away in an innings is 74 against West Indies in 2011 and if his current form carries on, this infamous record might fall in danger too.

#5 His bat doesn’t do the talking in ODIS

Ravichandran Ashwin has 4 Test hundreds, 10 fifties and averages a healthy 34.92 in the longest form of the game. In ODIs, though he is far from replicating the same success.

After 103 ODIs Ashwin has just 673 runs at an average of only 16.82. He has just one fifty with the highest score of 65.

His last five ODI scores read, 15 not out, 1, 4, 0, 5. Now as a captain you expect better from a player who scores runs a plenty in Test matches. If his batting doesn’t improve soon in ODI, Kohli might just be tempted to look for other options.

We are not saying he has to come up with a match-winning knock but a quickfire 20, 30 can be good enough

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