Ravichandran Ashwin has raised doubts about India choosing five specialist spinners in their 15-member team for the forthcoming Champions Trophy. Teams conventionally choose between three and four spinners, but the selectors, headed by Ajit Agarkar, took a calculated risk by replacing young opener Yashasvi Jaiswal with mystery spinner Varun Chakravarthy following Jasprit Bumrah’s injury.

In a frank conversation on his YouTube channel, Ravichandran Ashwin raised an eyebrow over this choice, more so in the context of Dubai’s pitch conditions. “Having five spinners and not having a batter like Jaiswal is surprising. We generally have three or four spinners in a team, but five seems like one too many, if not two,” Ravichandran Ashwin said.

India has already got the spin department filled with Ravindra Jadeja, Axar Patel, Washington Sundar, and Kuldeep Yadav. With Jadeja and Axar being near-evident all-rounders of the team starting alongside Hardik Pandya, Ashwin says it will become challenging to play Varun Chakravarthy in the playing XI at the expense of the balance in the team.

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If you see the composition, Axar and Jadeja are your all-rounders, and both will play. Hardik will also be around, and Kuldeep will play every game. So where does Varun fit in? To accommodate him, either a pacer gets to be sacrificed—leaving Hardik as the second seamer—or you lose another spinner. It’s a problem,” Ravichandran Ashwin discussed.

The other major point Ashwin made was whether Dubai’s conditions would even favor that many spinners. “Will the pitches support spin enough to warrant this choice? If Kuldeep is an automatic choice, how do you fit in Varun? Maybe both can play together, but is that the strategy we’re adopting? I’m a bit doubtful about the approach,” he said.

India’s last T20I series against England had them use four spinners, but the longer game requires a different approach. With Jadeja and Axar being nearly automatic choices, the last position could be a toss-up between Kuldeep and Varun.

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Put in Group A with Pakistan, New Zealand, and Bangladesh, India’s Champions Trophy bid will begin on February 20 against Bangladesh at Dubai. Here, the point to be particularly noted is that the Men in Blue will move directly into the tournament without staging any warm-up games, rendering their team composition even more imperative.