Former India player Sunil Gavaskar has slammed the team management for often not including Ravichandran Ashwin from the playing XI in Tests for team balance. Ashwin also announced his retirement from international cricket immediately after the third Test of the ongoing India-Australia series Down Under as well. Notably, he played only one of the first three Tests, as India used one spinner in each outing. While Washington Sundar played the first match in Perth and Ashwin replaced him in Adelaide before Ravindra Jadeja played in the Brisbane Test.
Criticizing the Indian team management about the same in his column for Mid Day, Sunil Gavaskar wrote: “Cricket being a batters game, the fact that he invariably won the Player of the Series award didn’t win him kudos among the batter’s fraternity. Every time there was even a five per cent excuse to leave him out of the eleven, it was grabbed avidly with the excuse of team balance.”
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“At home, there was no way he could be left out because the management knew that without him, they could not win the game. If the excuse was that the pitch and conditions wouldn’t suit the ICC number one ranked bowler, how come the same excuse was not used for the batters even if they were not top ranked by ICC, but who struggled in similar pitches and conditions in the SENA countries?,” he asked.
Sunil Gavaskar also believes Ravichandran Ashwin could have been a great captaincy option for Team India if given the opportunity.
Despite playing 287 matches for India across formats, he never led the side.
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“Ashwin would have made a fine captain for India, but he was denied even the honor of being the vice-captain. There was an opportunity to give him the belated honour even if it was for a token Test match and a limited overs bilateral series, but that also was denied to him. That’s why it was so good to see Rohit Sharma ask him to lead the team out on his 100th Test match,” Gavaskar further wrote in the same column.
