Sunil Gavaskar, one of India’s most famous batsmen, thinks that no other great Indian cricketer has been treated as strangely as Ravichandran Ashwin has been. India lost to Australia by 209 runs in the ICC World Test Championship (WTC) Final at the Oval. Ashwin, an experienced off-spinner, was not on the team.
In the weeks leading up to this year’s WTC final, there was a lot of talk and argument about whether or not Ashwin should be in the starting eleven. Cricket veterans from both India and Australia didn’t seem to care much that he wasn’t on the first team. They said that India couldn’t do well with the ball in hand.
In the same way, Gavaskar, a former cricket player, pointed out how many left-handed players Australia had in their WTC final playing XI and what effect Ashwin might have had on them.
Ashwin would already have played in more than 100 Tests. Sunil Gavaskar
The former cricketer, who is now a commentator, said that Ashwin’s treatment in these kinds of cases isn’t new, and it’s strange given how important he is as a bowler.
“No other top Indian cricketer has been treated as strangely as Ashwin has in the modern age. Tell me, if there was a batter on the team who was named No. 1 by the ICC, would he have been left out of the playing XI just because he had not scored runs on a grassy pitch or a dry spin-friendly pitch in the past? No, not at all.
“This isn’t being smart after all; it’s a trend we’ve seen over the years.
“He would have already played more than 100 Test matches if he didn’t have this “hard to understand thinking,” Gavaskar wrote in his latest Mid-Day piece. Ashwin, who was the best bowler in Tests and had 474 wickets in 92 games at a strike rate of 51.8 and 32 five-wicket hauls, was left out of the big game.
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