Ravichandran Ashwin's absence from India's playing XI in the crunch World Test Championship (WTC) final against Australia has left everyone surprised as to why Rohit Sharma made such a bold move at the Oval in London on Wednesday.
Rohit Sharma snubbed Ashwin and rather played an extra pacer Umesh Yadav and went with four-seamer-and-one-spinner combination against Australia. Ashwin's omission came down as a shocker from everyone as he has been in the sizzling form since the Border-Gavaskar series against Australia earlier in February this year. In the four-match series which India won 2-1, Ashwin snared the most 25 wickets and was adjudged the Player of the series for his brilliant show with the ball and bat as well.
Ashwin's snub raises Ganguly's eyebrows
Meanwhile, former India skipper Sourav Ganguly questioned Rohit Sharma's tactics to leave out Ashwin out of the picture and said that he would have personally found it extremely difficult to drop the ace spinner, especially in a crunch match like WTC final.
"It's an afterthought and I don't believe in afterthoughts in cricket. As a captain, you take a decision before the toss and India decided that they would field and that's why the decision to go in with 4 fast bowlers. Having said that, in the last couple of years, they have had success with 4 fast bowlers in these conditions. They have won Tests with 4 fast bowlers," Ganguly told Star Sports.
"If you ask me, if I was captaining, every captain is different. Rohit is different, I think differently. I would find it very, very hard to keep a spinner of Ashwin's quality out of the first XI," former BCCI president further added.
Follow INDIA vs AUSTRALIA's WTC Final's live scores here
Notably, Ashwin boast of an impressive track record in English where he has snared 18 wickets in a total of seven matches. However, Ashwin couldn't play the rescheduled fifth Test match against England in Southampton last year but has an experience of playing a WTC final back in 2021 which India lost to New Zealand.
However, India's legendary spinner Harbhajan Singh has a different opinion on Ashwin's missing out of the all-important WTC final against Australia. Harbhajan said that he is not exactly surprised after ace spinner's exclusion from Rohit's brigade's final XI in the summit clash at the Kennington Oval in London. The cricketer turned politician highlighted India's conundrum to play just one spinner and the choice was between the two best in the business, Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja. Harbhajan said that India boast of a strong batting line-up and given the conditions the top six batters can pose a great threat to Australia.
"I am not exactly surprised looking at these conditions. Either you play R Ashwin or Ravindra Jadeja. Unfortunately, R Ashwin misses out from this team. Shubman Gill, Virat Kohli, Ajinkya Rahane, Cheteshwar Pujara and the top five and six look very very good," Harbhajan told Star Sports.
India's Playing XI: Rohit Sharma(c), Shubman Gill, Cheteshwar Pujara, Virat Kohli, Ajinkya Rahane, Srikar Bharat(w), Ravindra Jadeja, Shardul Thakur, Umesh Yadav, Mohammed Shami, Mohammed Siraj.
Australia's Playing XI: David Warner, Usman Khawaja, Marnus Labuschagne, Steven Smith, Travis Head, Cameron Green, Alex Carey(w), Pat Cummins(c), Mitchell Starc, Nathan Lyon, Scott Boland.
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