Indian cricketing legend Sunil Gavaskar is baffled by India’s decision to drop the World No.1 spinner Ravichandran Ashwin from the playing 11 against Australia in the World Test Championship final in Kennington, Oval. The Tamil Nadu all-rounder was overlooked in the team in favour of Shardul Thakur for the much-awaited game.
Ravichandran Ashwin has been an asset for India ever since making his debut in 2011 against West Indies. He has been the standout performer at home and he has improved his record in foreign conditions over the last few years to provide some crucial breakthroughs for his team.
Speaking on Star Sports, Sunil Gavaskar was not happy with the decision made by the Indian team management to drop someone off Ravichandran Ashwin’s calibre for the ultimate test, as he should have played the game irrespective of the conditions, as the Indian ace spinner has not played in the last six matches India played in England.
“Well, first and foremost, they could have R Ashwin in the team. It really baffles me that 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 was here (in England), they were just not picking him,” Sunil Gavaskar said.
“Sometimes, you get a little carried away. If you have 4 quality seam bowlers, it’s a different thing. Top-quality seam bowlers.”
The veteran all-rounder is India’s second-highest wicket-taker in Test cricket of all time – 474 wickets at 23.93 – only behind Anil Kumble. He was also the leading wicket-taker for India in the Border Gavaskar Trophy at – 25 wickets and also has picked more than 100 wickets against Australia over the years.
Two Of Our Seam Bowlers Were Undercooked – Sunil Gavaskar
Sunil Gavaskar took a slight dig on the Indian pace bowling attack, as he said that it would be been the right thing to drop Ashwin if the Indian team had four quality seam bowlers in their attack and feels that Kolkata Knight Riders bowling duo Umesh Yadav and Shardul Thakur looked undercooked as they haven’t played in the later part of the IPL and reckons that Siraj and Shami were overlooked playing all the games for IPL.
“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 hadn’t bowled a lot. On the other hand, you had two bowlers who played every single game for their franchises. They might have been a little overcooked despite it being a 4-over spell,” Sunil Gavaskar concluded.
Umesh Yadav and Shardul Thakur could not play the role of the third and fourth pacer in the team, as they could not make an impact for the team giving away some easy runs for the Australian batters. Meanwhile, Mohammed Siraj and Mohammed Shami were impressive in the 1st and 2nd spells as they looked tired in the final session with a new ball.