Sunil Gavaskar, the former captain of India, expressed his bewilderment at India’s decision to exclude Ravichandran Ashwin, the top-ranked Test bowler, from the playing XI for the World Test Championship final against Australia at The Oval in London. The omission of Ashwin became the major talking point following the toss when Rohit Sharma revealed the team composition. Although India managed to take early wickets on Day 1, as the conditions improved and Steve Smith and Marnus Labuschagne took control, it appeared that India missed Ashwin’s presence.
Ashwin, with 61 wickets, holds the title of being India’s leading wicket-taker in the WTC 2021-23 cycle. Additionally, he currently holds the top spot in the ICC Test rankings for bowlers. Earlier this year, during the Border-Gavaskar Trophy, Ashwin claimed 25 wickets and was honored with the Player of the Series award alongside Ravindra Jadeja.
In light of these facts, Gavaskar expressed his opinion that India should have included the off-spinner in the team, emphasizing his sense of confusion regarding their decision to leave him out.
“Well, first and foremost, they could have R Ashwin in the team (what India could have done differently on Day 1?). It really baffles me irrespective of what the conditions are, the No. 1 bowler in the ICC rankings is not able to find a place in the Indian playing XI. That is something that has baffled me all the time whenever it’s Ashwin. Even the last time when India were here (in England), they were just not picking him,”
Gavaskar said.
India missed a trick by not playing Ravi Ashwin: Gavaskar
“Sometimes, you get a little carried away. If you have four quality seam bowlers, it’s a different thing. Top-quality seam bowlers. Two of our seam bowlers were undercooked. One is Umesh Yadav, who did not play in the last few matches for KKR and Shardul Thakur. Both of them who hadn’t bowled a lot,”
Gavaskar further added.
Follow us on Twitter for more!
