The Indian team-management, on Wednesday (June 7), faced severe criticism from several quarters for dropping Ravichandran Ashwin from the playing eleven for the ongoing ICC World Test Championship (WTC) final against Australia.
Not only the fans but several former cricketers including the likes of Sourav Ganguly and Ricky Ponting expressed their shock over Team India’s decision to drop the world number one Test spinner from the team. The off-spinner is also India’s leading wicket-taker in the ongoing ICC WTC cycle. However, it did not matter much as captain Rohit Sharma said that the tough call was taken for the shake of the team.
And perhaps it did not take India long to realise that they could have used Ravichandran Ashwin’s services on an Oval pitch where Australian batsmen made merry as the day progressed. After reducing Australia to 76 for 3 just after lunch, India could not pick a single wicket in the entire day as the Pat Cummins-led side finished on a commanding 327 for 3. Travis Head was unbeaten on 146 while Smith was batting on 95.
India coach on Ravichandran Ashwin:
Speaking at the post-day press conference, India’s bowling coach Paras Mhambrey defended the team’s decision to not play Ravichandran Ashwin against Australia. Mhambrey admitted that it was a tough call to drop the spinner but the team took the decision after looking at the conditions. He stated that it was a last minute call to go with four pacers.
“It’s always a very difficult decision to drop a champion bowler like him. But we looked at the conditions in the morning and thought an additional seamer would definitely be beneficial. It also worked in the past. In the last tour, we went in with 4 pacers and the seamers did well for us,” Mhambrey told the press.
“You can always look at the hindsight and say that we could have played an extra-spinner but we felt an extra pacer was needed,” he added.
With Australia looking set to post a big score, India would be hoping to take some quick wickets on day 2 and claw their way back into the game.
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