World Test Championship 2021-23

‘Sunny spitting too many facts these days’ -Fans react as Sunil Gavaskar says India made a mistake by benching R Ashwin in 2023 WTC final

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India suffered a crushing defeat of 209 runs at the hands of Australia in the World Test Championship final (WTC) at the Oval. Sunil Gavaskar tore into the Indian management for not picking Ravichandran Ashwin in the WTC final. Ashwin has picked up 470 wickets in Test cricket for India. Ashwin was third on the list in terms of wickets for India when it came to the 2021-23 WTC cycle. The off-spinner has been a beast in particular against left-handers.

India picked up four fast bowlers instead of the three-seamer-two-spinner lineup. India’s third and fourth seamers in Umesh Yadav and Shardul Thakur picked up two wickets in each innings to record a poor showing. “India dropped Ravichandran Ashwin, the No. 1 ranked bowler in the game, according to the rankings. The Australians had five left-handers in the team and while one leftie – Travis Head – scored a quickfire century in the first innings, another southpaw Alex Carey got a 48 in the first innings and an unbeaten 66 in the second. During that second innings effort, he also put on 93 runs with another left-hander Mitchell Starc at a time when India was looking to dismiss Australia cheaply in the second innings,” Gavaskar wrote on Mid-Day.

If Ashwin would have been in the team, the result would have been different for India- Sunil Gavaskar

“If Ashwin had been in the team, who knows what could have happened. With the bat too, he could have contributed. No other top-class Indian cricketer in the modern era has been treated as bafflingly as Ashwin has been. Tell me if there was a No. 1-ranked batter in the team, would he have been left out of the playing XI just because in earlier times he had not got runs on a grassy pitch or if he had not scored runs on a dry spin-friendly pitch? Definitely not,” Gavaskar added.

Ashwin has been on the bitter end of the stick under the present regime and also the regime which played under the Virat Kohli-Ravi Shastri duo. Ashwin’s omission has come at a time when he has had a reasonable record in overseas Tests for India picking up 18 wickets in the 2021-2023 WTC cycle. When India  and England played a Test series in England in 2021, Ashwin did not play a single game in that series.

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