Senior off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin returned to India’s white-ball outfit after four years when he was included in the 15-member squad for the T20 World Cup.
The 34-year-old Ashwin last played white-ball cricket for India in 2017 before being sidelined from one-day cricket following the Champions Trophy.
Ashwin, who is currently part of the Test squad that is playing against England in an ongoing five-match series, wrote a Twitter post to express his joy after the squad was unveiled on Wednesday night.
“Every tunnel has light at the end of it but only those in the tunnel who believe in the light will live to see it,” read the quote in a picture that he shared.
“I wrote this quote down a million times in my diary before putting this up on the wall! Quotes that we read and admire have more power when we internalise them and apply in life,” he added.
“Happiness and gratitude are the only two words that define me now.”
Despite over 400 Test wickets to his name, Ashwin has not been played in the ongoing series leading to speculation about the reasons.
Skipper Virat Kohli hasn’t been able to clearly explain his non-selection and there have been murmurs of tension building up in the Indian camp because of it.
Ashwin’s last limited-overs outing was during a tour of the West Indies and he has 52 wickets from 46 T20 International outings in his career.
He snared 13 wickets in the 14 IPL matches he played last season and has often stated that he is good enough for the shorter formats.
Talking about the squad, chief selector Chetan Sharma said: “Ashwin is an asset. He performed well in the IPL and we needed a player of his experience. We need an off-spinner with Washington (Sundar) injured.
India will open their T20 World Cup campaign on October 24 by taking on arch-rivals Pakistan.
