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Sunil Gavaskar Slams Team India For Dropping No. 1 Bowler Ashwin For WTC 2023 Final
Legendary Indian player Sunil Gavaskar lashed out at Indian selectors for picking Jadeja over Ashwin.
08 June 2023 • 10:05 AM
Sunil Gavaskar Backs Ashwin Source: ICC/ Twitter
New Delhi: Australia’s star Travis Head and Steve Smith’s incredible knock helped Australia dominate India on Day 1 of the 2023 World’s Test Championship final at The Ovals in London. India started the day on a strong note as star Indian spinner Mohammed Siraj got rid of Usman Khawaja for 0 in the first session.
Surprisingly, World No. 1 test bowler Ravichandran Ashwin, who has picked up the most wickets in the Border Gavaskar Trophy, was not included in the playing XI.
Legendary Indian player Sunil Gavaskar lashed out at the selectors for not picking up Ashwin in the WTC final. He further said that the decision of team India is beyond his understanding.
“India missed a trick by not playing Ravi Ashwin. He’s the No. 1 Ranked bowler. You don’t look at the pitch for players like him. You are playing a World Test Championships final, and you don’t pick the number one bowler in Test cricket. This decision from Team India is beyond my understanding. I would have picked him in place of Umesh Yadav, who was out of action and looks out of rhythm,” Gavaskar said.
“There are four left-handed batters in this Australian side, and he has traditionally done well against them. It is shocking that there isn’t any off-spinner in this side,” Gavaskar added.
Ricky Ponting slams Rohit, Dravid For Picking Jadeja Over Ashwin
Former Australian player Ricky Ponting had no doubts that Ashwin would have bowled better than Jadeja being World’s No. 1 test bowler.
“The reason why I was surprised that Ashwin was left out is because of the number of left-handers Australia have. There’s no doubt in my mind that Ashwin would have bowled a lot better than Jadeja later on in the Test. The big decision that they had to make was between Thakur and Umesh. I was leaning towards Thakur because he would be my workhorse to give a bit of a break to the strike bowlers Shami and Siraj. You can go to Jadeja for a couple of overs just to tie the game down a bit,” he added.