WTC Final: With so many left-handers in the Australian XI, an off-spinner should have been there – Sunil Gavaskar baffled by Ashwin’s omission

Indian legend Sunil Gavaskar expressed his surprise after Ravichandran Ashwin could not find a place in the team’s playing XI against Australia in the World Test Championship final. Ashwin is the number one bowler in the ICC Test rankings but he was left out because the team management backed a seam-bowling attack and picked Ravindra Jadeja.

In fact, Ashwin had finished as the leading wicket-taker in the Border-Gavaskar series with 25 scalps in four Test matches against Australia. But, the conditions at the Oval were completely different from India’s home conditions.

However, it is worth noting that there are four left-handers in Australia’s batting order and Ashwin could have been lethal with his ability to take the ball away from them.

“Well, first and foremost, they could have R Ashwin in the team (what India could have done differently on Day 1?). It really baffles me irrespective of what the conditions are, the No. 1 bowler in the ICC rankings is not able to find a place in the Indian playing XI. That is something that has baffled me all the time whenever it’s Ashwin. Even the last time when India were here (in England), they were just not picking him,” said Gavaskar on Star Sports.

The Little Master added Shardul Thakur and Umesh Yadav looked undercooked as they didn’t play enough for Kolkata Knight Riders in the second half of IPL 2023 because of their respective injuries.

“Sometimes, you get a little carried away. If you have 4 quality seam bowlers, it’s a different thing. Top-quality seam bowlers.”

“Two of our seam bowlers were undercooked. One is Umesh Yadav, who did not play in the last few matches for KKR and Shardul Thakur. Both of them who hadn’t bowled a lot. On the other hand, you had two bowlers who played every single game for their franchises. They might have been little overcooked despite it being a 4-over spell,” said Gavaskar.

Gavaskar feels India missed a trick by not picking Ravichandran Ashwin in the team’s playing XI.
“With so many left-handers in the Australian XI, an off-spinner should have been there. I think that’s where India missed a trick,” said Gavaskar.

Australia have put themselves in charge at 327-3 after Travis Head and Steve Smith scored brilliant knocks of 146 and 95 runs respectively.