The non-selection of Ravichandran Ashwin continues to be the biggest talking point in the cricket fraternity, even a day after India’s heart-wrenching loss to Australia in the World Test Championship (WTC) final. The World No. 1 Test bowler didn’t find a spot in India’s playing XI for the marquee clash at The Oval. Moreover, it was the sixth straight Test match that India played on English soil without Ashwin’s services.
The off-spinner’s exclusion has now led to contrasting opinions from the experts. Former India batting great Sunil Gavaskar believes no other top Indian cricketer has been subjected to the baffling treatment which has been meted out to Ashwin.
In his latest column for Mid-Day, Gavaskar blatantly mentioned that dropping Ashwin from the big game wasn’t the right call.
“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.
“This is not being wise after the event, but a pattern that has been seen over the years. But for this ‘hard to understand thinking’ he would have already played more than 100 Test matches.
“Even if India were to win, it should not blind us to the treatment given to Ashwin and whatever the explanation that is given, the bowling results in the match where India have been asked to chase 444 tells us that dropping him was not the right call to make,” wrote Gavaskar.
Ashwin, a veteran of 92 Test matches with 474 wickets, was left out despite the presence of five left-handed batters in Australia’s batting order. He had also been left out of India’s matches in England in 2021 and 2022, with conditions being cited as the reason.
“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,” Gavaskar further mentioned.
“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. If Ashwin had been in the team, who knows what could have happened? With the bat too, he could have contributed,” he added.
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