Focus again on Ashwin in final ODI before World Cup | Cricket

With the ODI series against Australia already won, Wednesday’s third and final game in Rajkot was going to be an opportunity for India’s World Cup squad to assemble and firm up plans before the stakes are ramped up at the marquee event. Not quite!

Skipper Rohit Sharma said India will have just 13 players to choose from with Shubman Gill, Hardik Pandya, Mohammed Shami, Shardul Thakur and Axar Patel missing for different reasons. While Gill has been rested after his century in the second match in Indore, Pandya, Shami and Thakur are absent for personal reasons. A few players seem to be battling viral fever too.

Of most concern will be the continued absence of Axar,…