User blog comment:Godisme/Eliminate From Heaven/@comment-1268838-20130220153742/@comment-893506-20130220165942

Okay, God is one of the very few (we can't speculate and say you were the only one in existence to think this, God) who thought Ichigo would fail.

Still, Nimaiya made a good point aside from this. Ichigo never had an Asauchi. Since he's a substitute, it's not hard to see why. But he still has genuine Shinigami powers of his own, and Zangetsu is his own Zanpakuto. This makes his method of getting Shikai, as well as a Bankai, a complete anomaly.