India’s former off-spinner, Ravichandran Ashwin, has dropped a huge prediction on the Test future of the pacer, Aakash Deep, who was part of their five-match Test series down under in the Border Gavaskar Trophy 2024-25. Ashwin retired last month during the same series in the third red-ball contest at the Gabba in Brisbane.
Aakash Deep featured in India’s third and fourth Test in Brisbane and Melbourne against Australia. In four Test innings, the right-arm pacer picked up five wickets at an average of 54 and a strike rate of 93.40 with the best figure of 2/28 in an innings as he was unlucky on many occasions.
Ashwin, during a recent interaction at AWS AI Conclave 2025 in Bengaluru, explained why India had been far behind the other teams like Australia as a cricketing powerhouse. The Tamil Nadu spinner reckoned that the bowlers tend to get sidelined after a few bad outings, unlike the batters, who don’t get the same treatment.
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“It is an unfair world. The batters get cocooned, but the bowlers don’t. You will find Akash Deep not playing another Test match because he didn’t get enough wickets in Australia. But you will never find another batter who hasn’t made enough runs, not playing another game for India. That’s exactly why Australia is a dominant force in world cricket, and Indians aren’t.” Ravichandran Ashwin expressed.
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Aakash missed the fifth and final Test of the series in Australia at the Sydney Cricket Ground (SCG). Jasprit Bumrah was the leading wicket-taker of the series to finish with 32 scalps in nine innings at an average of 13.06 and a strike rate of 28.37, with the best bowling figure of 6/76 in an innings. He enjoyed a couple of four-wicket and three five-wicket hauls.
Ashwin exclaimed that Australia had been far ahead of India in terms of knowing their strength, which is the main reason behind their performance in the big events regularly.
“Even though we have everything, I still think Australia is a dominant force because they know where their roots are, and they know bowlers are their main guys who will win Test matches and tournaments. The day we get there, bowlers will start consuming data way better than they do.” The Chennai-born added.
India’s two batting superstars have flopped in the last few years. Virat Kohli managed just 93 runs in the six innings at home against New Zealand in the three-match series. Despite his unbeaten century in the BGT 2024-25, the right-handed batter could end up with 190 runs in nine innings at an average of 23.75, thanks to the best score of 100*.
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The same story has been going on for India’s Test captain Rohit Sharma. The opening batter collected 91 runs in six innings against the Kiwis, besides getting just 31 runs in five innings in the BGT 2024-25. He batted in the middle order during the second and third Test before getting promoted to the opening position. But nothing worked out.
India’s next Test series will be in England as they look to start the fourth cycle of the World Test Championship (WTC) 2023-25. They missed the chance to qualify for the third consecutive time in the final of the WTC after two successive Test series defeats against the Kiwis and Australia. It was a contrasting second half for the national side in the longest format after victories against England and Bangladesh.