Chahal and Kuldeep could well end ODI careers of Jadeja and Ashwin

Here is a trivia question for you: when did Ravindra Jadeja last represent India in a one-day international? Answer: July 6, 2017. Here is another one: when did Ravichandran Ashwin last represent India in an ODI? Answer: June 30, 2017.

These facts then lead us to ask one more question: why has neither cricketer played in the 50-overs format for the past seven months?

The reasons are complicated, but the short answer is wrist spin.

Now for the long-ish answer: India’s 180-run thrashing at the hands of Pakistan in the ICC Champions Trophy final last June prompted a post-mortem, which concluded their batting capitulation and insipid bowling on the day were why they lost.

It also revealed a deeper problem: India’s spin twins were just not cutting it in the limited-overs formats, with their fortunes in the one-day game seeing alarming dips since the 2015 World Cup.

According to statistics that appeared in Scroll.in, off-spinner Ashwin’s ODI average of 31.93 until the 2015 event had risen to 47.3 after it. His economy rate (4.85 to 5.6), strike-rate (39.4 to 50.6) and wickets per innings (1.4 to 1.1) had worsened.

Slow left-armer Jadeja’s numbers are even more dire: average – 33.19 to 61.58, economy rate – 4.84 to 5.47, strike-rate – 41 to 67.5, and wickets per innings – 1.25 to 0.8.

Constant travel, excessive cricket and periodic switching of formats might have contributed to their slides. But it was also clear both spinners preferred to contain rather than attack. They tended to take wickets by frustrating batsmen, not outsmarting them – a strategy that was not going to work all the time.

Fortunately for India, the collective decline of right-armed Ashwin and left-armed Jadeja has coincided with the rise of right-armed Yuzvendra Chahal and left-armed Kuldeep Yadav. Except there is a key difference in their bowling styles: Ashwin and Jadeja are finger spinners, Chahal and Kuldeep wrist spinners.

This is a crucial distinction because modern-day wrist spinners, especially those who are inspired by former Australian leg-spinner Shane Warne, tend to attack rather than defend.

They may find it more difficult to control the ball than the finger spinners do, but they can do much more with it – such as imparting more spin on it and giving it more air.

During the past seven months, the younger Chahal and Kuldeep have shown a hunger for wickets and fearlessness to flight the ball – both associated with youth – and the results are for all to see. Chahal has taken 34 wickets in 19 ODIs at an average of 21.88, while Kuldeep has managed 28 wickets from 16 matches at 20.77.

They have both been creative in finding ways to get wickets, even in South Africa where the conditions do not usually favour slow bowlers. Chahal’s five-wicket haul in Centurion was a case in point.

It is too early to say yet, but the manner in which this duo has impressed over the past few months suggests Jadeja and Ashwin may not only have kissed their chances to play in the 2019 World Cup goodbye, but their ODI careers as well.