‘He kept it very simple…’ – Ace India spinner Ravichandran Ashwin opens up about sense of security in Indian team, recalls MS Dhoni’s era

India failed to beat Australia in the finals of the World Test Championship 2023. After registering a humiliating defeat by 209 runs at the Oval, India’s dream of winning a multinational tournament was also shattered. From fans to cricket pundits, everyone slammed Indian team management for poor team selection and bad on-field decisions. 

One of the most controversial or talked about decisions was dropping Ravichandran Ashwin from the playing xi. Ashwin who has been phenomenal throughout the WTC cycle was dropped from the final. Greats like Sunil Gavaskar, Harbhajan Singh and many more expressed concerns over the decision. However, weeks after the game Ashwin himself spoke about the game and India’s continuous poor performance in multinational tournaments. 

“It is understandable that there’s a furore in India that we haven’t won an ICC trophy in 10 years. I empathize with the fans. But the reaction on social media is that this player should be dropped and that player should be included. But the quality of a player doesn’t change overnight. A lot of us talk about MS Dhoni’s leadership. What did he do? He kept it very simple. Under his regime, where I also played, he will pick a squad of 15. The same squad of 15 and the XI will play throughout the year. That sense of security is very important for a player,” said Ravichandran Ashwin in his YouTube video. 

Cheteshwar Pujara dropped from the Test team 

Meanwhile, India announced their squad for Two match Test series against West Indies followed by a three-match ODI series. In a shocking decision Indian team management dropped ace batter Cheteshwar Pujara from the Test squad. He has been replaced by Yashasvi Jaiswal and Ruturaj Gaikwad. Apart from him team also appointed Ajinkya Rahane as vice-captain of the team. 

Ruturaj Gaikwad who is currently participating in Maharashtra Premier League has been rewarded for his form. He is also included in the ODI squad. The team also called back Sanju Samson and Navdeep Saini in ODI and Test squad respectively. Star pacer Mohammed Shami has been rested from the Windies tour. 

Here is India’s squad for the West Indies tour:

TEST Squad: Rohit Sharma (Capt), Shubman Gill, Ruturaj Gaikwad, Virat Kohli, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Ajinkya Rahane (VC), KS Bharat (wk), Ishan Kishan (wk), R Ashwin, R Jadeja, Shardul Thakur, Axar Patel, Mohd. Siraj, Mukesh Kumar, Jaydev Unadkat, Navdeep Saini.

ODI Squad: Rohit Sharma (Capt), Shubman Gill, Ruturaj Gaikwad, Virat Kohli, Surya Kumar Yadav, Sanju Samson (wk), Ishan Kishan (wk), Hardik Pandya (VC), Shardul Thakur, R Jadeja, Axar Patel, Yuzvendra Chahal, Kuldeep Yadav, Jaydev Unadkat, Mohd. Siraj, Umran Malik, Mukesh Kumar.