Indian legendary cricketer Sachin Tendulkar slams Indian selection committee for excluding R Ashwin from India’s playing XI for the World Test Championship final against Australia.
Sachin slams Indian selection committee for excluding Ashwin
World Test Championship 2023 final is scheduled to play from June 7 to 11 in Kennington Oval, London between India and Australia.
Winning the toss, India opted to bowl first and that too particularly without the world’s top-ranked Test bowler – spinner Ravichandran Ashwin.
With Australia 76/3 at one stage it looked as if India’s selection could be the right one. But an unbroken 251-run stand between Head and Smith helped Australia to 469 at the close, leaving India on the back foot in the game.
Earlier, Bowling coach Paras Mhambrey backs Indian bowlers after an unimpressive first day in WTC 2023 final and explains the reason for the exclusion of Ashwin from the playing 11.
Though Mhambrey makes a statement regarding Ashwin’s exclusion, many cricket experts slam the Indian selection committee for their decision to play without Ashwin.
Now, the 100-centurion Sachin Tendulkar says “India had to bat big in the first innings to stay in the game, but they couldn’t. There were some good moments for Team India, but I fail to understand the exclusion of Ashwin in the playing XI, who is currently the number one Test bowler in the world”.
What surprised Tendulkar is the fact that he found it difficult to believe that a bowler of Ashwin’s calibre can’t be used in conditions which are seamer-friendly.
“Like I had mentioned before the match, skilful spinners don’t always rely on turning tracks, they use drift in the air and bounce off the surface to disguise their variations. Not to forget, Australia had 5 left-handers out of their top 8 batters”, Sachin added.
For the record, Ashwin has picked up 61 wickets in 13 Tests in the two-year cycle of the second WTC edition.
The Australian bowling attack came out strong against India in the first inning, reducing India to 151-5 by stumps on day two. Pat Cummins drew first blood by removing Rohit Sharma, while Scott Boland and Cameron Green showcased their skills to dismiss Shubman Gill and Chiteshwar Pujara, respectively.
Rohit Sharma who opened the inning along with Gill failed to make an impact in India’s 1st inning. Rohit lost his wicket for 15 runs in the 6th over bowled by Pat Cummins.
The left-arm pacer Mitchell Starc generated extra bounce to dismiss Virat Kohli for 14 runs while Lyon dismissed Jadeja for 48 runs. India ended up scoring 269 runs in their first innings.
Australia scored 270 runs in their second inning and declared the match. India’s top-order batters once again failed to score big and ended up the inning with a score of 234 and lost the game by 209 runs.
This is the second time where India loses the WTC Final. In the first edition, India loses the trophy to New Zealand; in the second edition, India loses the trophy to Australia.
READ: WTC 2023 Final: ICC Fines Shubman Gill For Breaching Code of Conduct
