With the T20 World Cup fast approaching, all the major international teams have been playing loads of T20 cricket along with Test matches. One Day Internationals had taken a backseat for some time, but it seems that the teams have one eye set on the ODI World Cup that is to be played in India next year.
Opening up on the matter and presenting his views clearly, Ravichandran Ashwin has now said that it is high time that One Day International (ODI) cricket finds its relevance because at the moment it feels like an etent format of T20I cricket without the "ebbs and flows". As of now it doesn't seem that a lot of international team are taking any kind of interest in ODI cricket and some of the former stalwarts of the game like Ravi Shastri want more franchise-based T20 leagues than these kind of series. This is the year of the T20I World Cup and every team around the globe is busy playing the shortest format of the game just to put in their plans in place which gives them the best possible chance to win the trophy in Australia later this year.
"It's a question of relevance and I think ODI cricket needs to find its relevance. It needs to find its spot,The greatest beauty of one day cricket is – sorry was – the ebbs and flows of the game. People used to bide their time and take the game deep.The one-day format used to be a format where bowlers had a say", said Ashwin who has 151 wickets in 113 ODIs, on the upcoming show of the 'Vaughany and Tuffers Cricket club podcast.
A cricket nerd himself, Ravichandran Ashwin admitted to the fact that he himself switched off the telivision after one point of time while watching an ODI game. "Even me as a cricket badger and a cricket nut, I switch off the TV after a point and that's frankly very scary for the format of the game. When those ebbs and flows go missing, it's not cricket anymore. It is just an extended form of T20," added Ashwin.
The Indian spinner is also critical about two new balls being used as he stressed on returning to the old format where one was ball used, saying it would then be an even contest.
(Inputs from PTI)
