India's legendary spinner Ravichandran Ashwin is unhappy with captain Shubman Gill and head coach Gautam Gambhir underutilising spinners on Day 4 of the fifth Test at Kennington Oval, London. Ashwin feels that the game awareness has been lacking in the Anderson-Tendulkar Trophy 2025, which is why the hosts are ahead of India. He reckons that Gill's ability to play spin well can be a reason why he was reluctant to back spinners against set batters Joe Root and Harry Brook.
“Coming back to the topic of spinners not being used, I have felt in this series that there has been a lack of game awareness and in many ways, our tactical acumen both on and off the field. This is the main reason why England are ahead in this series and India are behind. We haven't been the sharpest,” said Ashwin on his YouTube channel ‘Ash Ki Baat’.
“I feel Shubman Gill will get really better as the captain. He will learn. But sometimes if you feel that you can play spin really well, you will not bring spinners into the attack, and when you miss the moment to bring the spinners in these conditions, then the spinner becomes a really defensive option,” he added.
Ashwin hoped to see Washington Sundar introduced into the act when Brook was going all guns blazing. The 38-year-old believes that Sundar could have stemmed the flow of runs. He wonders who is making the decisions, whether it is on the field or in the dressing room. He wants these mistakes to be avoided.
“When Harry Brook started taking it on, after 20 runs, you could have brought on the spinner to choke the run flows. From the other end, a pacer could have bowled. With all this in mind, Washington Sundar could have been brought earlier into the attack,” said Ashwin.
“Making these mistakes is a huge gap. We don't know whether the message is going from outside to the middle. We don't know the dressing room talks. But in today's day and age, these mistakes can definitely be avoided,” he added.
Sundar and Jadeja’s bowling stats in the series
So far, Sundar and Jadeja have bowled four overs each, conceding 19 and 22 runs respectively. Both of them have taken seven wickets each. But, Sundar has bowled just over 74 overs in the Test series despite being part of the playing XI in four of them. Meanwhile, Jadeja has bowled 142.1 overs and has a bowling average of 72.43 in the series, compared to Sundar's 38.57.