Former India player turned veteran commentator Aakash Chopra has questioned R Ashwin’s utilization by India captain Rohit Sharma during New Zealand’s second innings of the first Test in Bengaluru as well. He also added that Ashwin was hardly used despite him being a potent weapon, especially against left-handers as well.

In a video shared on his YouTube channel ‘Aakash Chopra’ said, “No doubt the runs were less but we didn’t get Ashwin to bowl at all. I am not saying we would have won the match if Ashwin had bowled but we didn’t get him to bowl. That was surprising and how. Why was Ashwin not bowled? I don’t have an answer for that because if you see his numbers, he is your team’s best bowler. No one has taken more wickets than him in Test matches. Left-handers were playing but you still didn’t get him to bowl. It was not understandable at all.”

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In the same video, Aakash Chopra also shared that giving a long spell to Jasprit Bumrah was the right call as well. However, he further added that R Ashwin should have been introduced much earlier as well.

“You still understand Bumrah’s long spell because only two wickets fell and he took both. However, Mohammed Siraj from the other end. Although he was bowling well with the new ball, when you stopped him, you could have got either Jaddu (Ravindra Jadeja) or Ashwin first, that’s fine, but you used Ashwin as the fifth option,” he said.

“The match was over. There was no life left in the match. 15 or 20 runs were left and you called him to bowl. It would have been better if you hadn’t bowled him at all. This question should have been asked in the post-match press conference – ‘Rohit bhai, what did you do?’. I thought India definitely missed a trick and it is beyond my understanding why he wasn’t bowled,” Aakash Chopra concluded.