NEW DELHI: Indian cricket legend Sunil Gavaskar has expressed his disappointment with the team management’s handling of Ravichandran Ashwin, accusing them of sidelining the veteran spinner in the name of team balance. This criticism follows Ashwin’s retirement from international cricket immediately after the third Test of the ongoing India-Australia series.
The 38-year-old Ashwin featured in only one of the first three Tests in the current series. India deployed a rotating policy for the spinner’s slot, opting for Washington Sundar in Perth, Ashwin in Adelaide, and Ravindra Jadeja in Brisbane. Despite being a regular in squads for tours to SENA (South Africa, England, New Zealand, and Australia) countries, Ashwin played only 26 Tests in these conditions over his 14-year career.
Writing in his column for Mid Day, Gavaskar stated, “Cricket being a batters’ game, the fact that he invariably won the Player of the Series award didn’t win him kudos among the batters’ fraternity. Every time there was even a five percent excuse to leave him out of the eleven, it was grabbed avidly with the excuse of team balance.”
Gavaskar further questioned why the same standards were not applied to batters who struggled in overseas conditions. “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?”
Ashwin retired as India’s second-highest wicket-taker across formats, only behind Anil Kumble. Beyond his bowling prowess, Gavaskar believes Ashwin had the qualities to lead the Indian team.
“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 wrote.
Ashwin’s career spanned 287 matches across all formats, yet he never captained the national side.
