‘West Indies ke khillaf alag hi form me hota hai’ – Fans react to Ravichandran Ashwin’s monstrous all-round stats in West Indies

Only a few hours are left before the runners-up of the World Test Championship 2021-23, Indian take on the West Indies in their own backyard. The multi-format tour is all set to start with the two-match Test series starting on July 12th at Windsor Park in Dominica. The Test match will also kickstart the World Test Championship cycle 2023-25 cycle for both nations.

However, ahead of the first Test, star Indian off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin is expected to be India’s main man in the Test series due to his magnificent all-round stats against the Caribbean side. The World’s number one Test bowler and the number two Test all-rounder has been at his best against the Windies with a batting average of 50.18 and a bowling average of 21.85 against them.

Notably, despite his sensational number, he wasn’t included in the Indian playing XI for the WTC final against Australia. Eventually, India went on to lose the game by 209 runs and lost another chance to clinch the Test mace in their second consecutive attempt. However, skipper Rohit Sharma himself confirmed that Ashwin will be featuring in the Dominica Test along with the spin twin Ravindra Jadeja.

“Looking at the wicket, it looks like we’ll play with two spinners and three seamers. Because what we’ve seen here, 2017 was the last Test played here and lot of wickets taken by the spinners. Having practised here as well and with the bounce, we feel that we have to go with the 3-2 combination,” Rohit said at the Press Conference ahead of the first Test

Yashasvi Jaiswal to make India debut, Shubman Gill to bat at number three

In the Press Conference, Rohit also confirmed that the young batter Yashasvi Jaiswal will be making his India debut in the first Test as an opener with Shubman Gill batting at number three. after he himself requested the Head Coach Rahul Dravid. The 23-year-old expressed his desire to play at number three with a belief that he can contribute more effectively by batting at that position.

“For the batting positions, Gill will play at No. 3. He himself has said that he had a chat with Rahul Dravid and said that he’s played his entire career at 3 and 4 and that he can perform better for the team at No. 3. And for us also it becomes better because we have a left-right opening combination. So that is what we’ll try to do and hopefully, this will go for a long term,” Rohit said.