Ashwin hot on Harbhajan's heels

With the World Cup out of the way, India's selectors are likely to shift from a result-oriented approach to longer-term planning for their team's future, says Karthik Krishnaswamy, writing in the Indian Express. And R Ashwin must be featuring prominently in their thoughts, he says, threatening Harbhajan Singh's place in the national XI.

The two [Harbhajan and Ashwin] have similar figures this [IPL] season. Harbhajan has 13 wickets from 13 matches with an economy rate of 6.75, while Ashwin's 14 games have brought him 16 wickets while conceding 6.16 runs an over. Their strike rates are separated by a single decimal point. Dig a little deeper, however, and the differences become apparent. Five of Harbhajan's 13 wickets came in Mumbai's eight-run win over Chennai at Wankhede, and has gone wicketless seven times. Ashwin, on the other hand, hasn't picked up more than two wickets in any of his spells, and has failed to strike only three times.