Former England skipper Michael Vaughan has criticised Team India’s decision of not including Ravichandran Ashwin in the playing eleven for the ongoing Edgbaston Test.
Before the start of the ongoing Test against England, Team India sprung a big surprise by not naming Ravichandran Ashwin in the playing eleven. Just like last year in England, India picked three specialist pacers – Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Shami, Mohammed Siraj – and two allrounders – Ravindra Jadeja and Shardul Thakur – in the bowling lineup.
With Ashwin on the bench for all the four Tests against England last year, India did well. After the first Test ended in a draw, they won two and lost to take a lead in the series. Ashwin, however, was expected to be a part of the playing eleven for the ongoing game because of the conditions in England this season.
While the pitches in England last season were generally green and seam-friendly, they have behaved differently this year. During the recently-concluded Test series between England and New Zealand, both the teams posted big totals and also saw spinners doing well. England’s Jack Leach picked up a 10-wicket match haul in the third Test in Leeds. Michael Bracewell also picked up 5 wickets in 2 Tests.
Michael Vaughan on Ravichandran Ashwin’s exclusion:
The Indian team-management decided to stick with the bowling lineup that had done extremely well in England last year. And while only time will tell whether the decision to leave Ashwin out was correct or not, Michael Vaughan is not too impressed with it.
Just a hour after the Test started, Vaughan took to Twitter to call Indian team-management’s decision a ridiculous one as he tweeted:
“No @ashwinravi99!!!! Ridiculous .. “
No @ashwinravi99 !!!! Ridiculous .. #ENGvIND
— Michael Vaughan (@MichaelVaughan) July 1, 2022
It should be noted that Ashwin had recently tested positive for Covid-19. Consequently, he could not travel to England with the squad and joined the team last week only. Soon after landing in England, he bowled in the final innings of the warm-up match against Leicestershire and did well. The spin ace picked up two wickets including that of Gill to prove his match-fitness.