Ravichandran Ashwin: It’s been two days since India’s abysmal 209-run defeat in the World Test Championship (WTC) Final against Australia, but the post-mortem is not done yet. Sunil Gavaskar, who was upset with team India dropping Ravichandran Ashwin, has again hit back at Rohit Sharma and Rahul Dravid for the unfair treatment meted out to the Number one-ranked Test bowler. Gavaskar feels with Australia having five left-hand batters, India missed a trick by not playing Ashwin.
Not only Dravid, and Rohit Sharma, Gavaskar has lashed out at Ravi Shastri and Virat Kohli for not playing Ashwin during the 2021 Test series in England. Gavaskar believes Ashwin should have played the WTC Final instead of Jadeja as he is miles ahead of him.
“India dropped Ravichandran Ashwin, the No. 1 ranked bowler in the game, according to the ICC rankings. The Australians had five left-handers in the team, and while one leftie – Travis Head – scored a quickfire century in the first innings, another southpaw, Alex Carey got a 48 in the first innings and an unbeaten 66 in the second.
During that second innings effort, he also put on 93 runs with another left-hander Mitchell Starc at a time when India were looking to dismiss Australia cheaply in the second innings,” Gavaskar wrote in his column for Mid-Day.
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With India only playing Jadeja as the sole spinner, the southpaw failed to take wickets in the middle overs in both innings. With the pitch getting helpful for spinners in the second innings, Jadeja picked up threes wicket as opposed to Australia’s Nathan Lyon, who picked up four wickets in the second innings.
Gavaskar questioned Team India’s selection call on dropping Ashwin despite the off-spinner being the highest wicket-taker in the WTC cycle 2021-23.”If Ashwin had been in the team, who knows what could have happened. With the bat too, he could have contributed. No other top-class Indian cricketer in the modern era has been treated as bafflingly as Ashwin has been.
Tell me if there was a No. 1 ICC-ranked batter in the team, would he have been left out of the playing XI just because in earlier times he had not got runs on a grassy pitch or if he had not scored runs on a dry spin-friendly pitch? Definitely not.”
With Australia getting 173 runs lead in the first innings and the pitch being eased out on days three and four, Gavaskar feels Ashwin could have proven to be a game-changer.
“If Ashwin had been in the team, who knows what could have happened. With the bat too, he could have contributed. No other top-class Indian cricketer in the modern era has been treated as bafflingly as Ashwin has been. Tell me if there was a No. 1 ICC-ranked batter in the team, would he have been left out of the playing XI just because in earlier times he had not got runs on a grassy pitch or if he had not scored runs on a dry spin-friendly pitch? Definitely not.”
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