‘Ek aur trophy gaya haath se’ -Fans react as Ricky Ponting lambasts India for not picking Ravinchandran Ashwin in starting XI for WTC final
Ravichandran Ashwin has picked up 474 wickets for india.
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Jun 8, 2023 11:24 am
Ravichandran Ashwin (Source: Twitter)
Australia bossed the World Test Championship final (WTC) on day 1 as they ended the day on 327-3. Though the Kangaroos lost three wickets in the first two sessions, Steve Smith and Travis Head made an unbeaten partnership of 251 off 370 balls.
Head played a stunning innings of 146 off 156 balls. The Left-hander scored at a quick strike rate and put Indian bowlers under pressure. India were not helped with shoddy bowling and might have got the team composition wrong as well.
Speaking on India’s team composition, Ricky Ponting said,
“India have made a mistake by not going with R Ashwin. They are only thinking about the first innings. Ashwin would have troubled the left-handers more than Ravindra Jadeja. Ashwin has picked up 474 wickets in Test cricket for India. He had become a point of contention before the start of the WTC final as the pitch doctor of the Oval had revealed that there will be bounce at the venue.”
Ashwin would have spun the bowl away from left-handers, now he is not there – Ricky Ponting
Ponting talked about it again when he was doing commentary for Channel 7. He said that the ball is most likely to turn as the game goes on and India have missed a trick by not including Ashwin in the XI.
“Now that they have won the toss and bowled, they want to do some damage with the new ball. Because as this game goes on, I think it will turn and they would’ve wanted Ashwin to spin the ball away from the Australian left-handers, and he’s not there”, he said on Channel 7.
India went in with Ravindra Jadeja instead of Ashwin. The Men in Blue opted for the four seamers and one spinner combination instead of the traditional three-seamer two spinner combination. Keeping the English conditions in mind the think tank of the Indian team felt that they would opt for the extra fast bowler in place of Ashwin.
India lost the last WTC final to New Zealand in 2021. In that final, both Jadeja and Ashwin played. The match though had weather interruptions and the game went on till the reserve day due to inclement weather. The 2021 WTC final was played at Edgbaston. India and Australia are chasing their maiden WTC title.
It doesn't seem to be a mistake for the first day of the test. Ashwin could not be that impactful on this hard pitch. You cannot predict what's gonna happen on the 3rd day if Australia already scores 450+ in the first innings.
It's one of those bold moves: if it works it's a masterstroke, else it's a disaster… Taking a look at the pitch which obviously favours pacers quite a bit or pick experience over clear possible advantage, it was a gamble, so different ppl will have different opinions for this
In absence of Pant, Iyer and Rahul We were a batsman short already. Adding the Batsman Jadeja was the trick. Considering history fast bowlers always got something in England, went with Shardul otherwise Ashwin is equally capable as batsman in Test cricket. Now selection done hope
It's starting to seem like indian players don't really care about winning big tournaments for india. No preparations, wrong team selections. When are we going to see younger players playing tests for India.
