India's premier Test spinner Ravichandran Ashwin on Monday said that playing county cricket ahead of the five-Test series against England will depend a lot on "feasibility" factor.
"County cricket plan is definitely there, but feasibility needs to be worked upon," informed Ashwin on the sidelines of a promotional event for Oppo that he took part in along with India teammates Rohit Sharma and Hardik Pandya.
last season Ashwin, who is no longer a regular in white ball cricket for the country, had utilised the free time to play in the English county season in a few matches for Worcestershire.
India skipper Virat Kohli has already been given permission by the BCCI to skip the one-off Test against debutants Afghanistan to play county cricket for Surrey as a much-needed preparation for the five-match rubber against the hosts later.
Ashwin said he was looking ahead to captaining Kings XI Punjab in the upcoming IPl commencing on April 7 and described playing in the T20 league as somewhat akin to being in a corporate environment.
"I am looking forward to doing it to the utmost of my capability. It is a very exciting challenge, but I have played with a lot of players who played in IPl sides and hopefully I can learn from them and their experience and try and be the best (captain) that I can," the senior off-spinner said.
"It (IPl challenge) is a good as being in a corporate environment where you are supposed to deliver and people are looking towards you to deliver results. It is going to be a little pressure oriented in that scenario but it is also going to be exciting and that is where it comes. So if you can produce results there is nothing like that, but if you can't then you have to learn and move forward."
Ashwin said the key was to gel together.
"I am reaching (the team's assembling point) only tomorrow and once we get together and mingle with the boys then we will know. That's the only challenge of the IPl. Those who have a retained core have a pretty much set team who they are used to. But we have almost re-formed ourselves in so many ways. Even I am new to the franchise, so it is going to be how we come together and how the team dynamics work and taking it forward.
Varun for leicestershire: Out-of-favour India fast bowler Varun Aaron is the latest among the bandwagon of India players to sign up for an English county side as he will turn up for leicestershireduring the upcoming season.
Aaron has played for India in 9 Tests and equal number of ODIs and was a part of the Indian side during the 2014 series in England. His bouncer struck Stuart Broad on the nose during one of the Test matches. He has earlier played county cricket for Durham.
leicestershire head coach Paul Nixon said: "Varun is a high-quality performer and his skills will be ideally suited to early season conditions in England. We are delighted to secure his signature for both Specsavers County Championship games and fixtures in the Royal london One-Day Cup.”