Is Ravichandran Ashwin playing today? Analyzing India’s bowling combination for IND vs PAK match

India have made only one change to their playing 11 after the Afghanistan encounter, with Shubman Gill coming in for Ishan Kishan. The bowling attack has remained the same without off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin.

Ashwin got into India's World Cup squad as an injury replacement for left-arm spinner Axar Patel. The veteran did well against Australia in the team's tournament opener, returning with figures of 1/34 at the MA Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai.

But Ashwin was dropped for the following match on a flat track in Delhi and the decision proved right. Even Kuldeep Yadav, the Men in Blue's lead spinner, went wicketless and Ashwin's replacement, Shardul Thakur, bowled a spell of 1/31.

The pitch at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad is expected to be flat too. Sanjay Manjrekar and Waqar Younis in the pitch report said that it was hard without much grass cover, making it quite good for batting.

India are likely to keep him as a backup to both Kuldeep and Jadeja and bring him on as a third spinner on tracks that'd be dry and offer turn like in Chennai.

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Analyzing India’s bowling combination for IND vs PAK match

The flat-ish pitch means that Rohit Sharma was happy to go with one specialist spinner in Kuldeep Yadav, two frontline pacers in Jasprit Bumrah and Mohammed Siraj, and two all-rounders in Hardik Pandya and Ravindra Jadeja for the match.

Bumrah and Siraj will take the new ball while Hardik and Shardul Thakur will likely come as the first changes. Kuldeep and Jadeja will take the spin duties after the powerplay, bowling in tandem or with pacers on the other end.

Ravichandran Ashwin and Thakur are almost identical in their batting ability too. The hosts would hope though that they will not have to depend on their lower order to score runs today.