The premier Indian spinner, Ravichandran Ashwin has been facing some strain in his left-side abdominal and hence, he was ruled out of the second Test against Australia in Perth. However, he failed to recover in time to be considered for the ongoing Boxing Day Test in Melbourne and former India skipper Sourav Ganguly has raised his concerns over it.
In his column for Times of India (TOI), Ganguly wrote, “Ashwin is not doing his reputation any good.” Sourav feels that being the premier spinner for the side Ashwin can’t keep himself out of action, so many times, due to injuries during the overseas tours. “He elaborated, “Ravichandran Ashwin is worrying me now, he can’t be the premier spinner and get injured so many times on big tours: England, South Africa and now Australia. The team needs him against left-handers…he is not doing his reputation any good.”
Ashwin had picked up six wickets and scored 30 runs during the Adelaide Test against Australia. He was also the lone specialist spinner picked up by the visitors during the first Test.
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Senior spinner Ashwin has played as many as 65 Tests for India and he has scored 2,361 Test runs combined with 342 wickets in the longest format of the game with the best figures of seven for 59. He also has 150 One-day International (ODI) wickets under his belt.
In the ongoing Boxing Day Test, India had posted 215 for the loss of two wickets at stumps on Day 1, after opting to bat. The four-match Test series is currently level at 1-1 with the final match slated to take place in Sydney from January 3, 2019.
On the other hand, the legendary cricketer Sunil Gavaskar mourned about R Ashwin’s side strain and said the off-spinner would have been an easy choice if he were fit. He said, “He [Ashwin] definitely would have because I don’t think they would have included an extra bowler and gone in with a five-bowler attack. They would have included Hanuma Vihari as Rohit wasn’t fit but Ashwin definitely would have played.”
