London: Once the toss took place and Rohit Sharma revealed his playing XI for the World Test Championship final at the Oval, the big talking point was the omission of Ravichandran Ashwin. India picked up early wickets but then when the pitch became better to bat on and Steve Smith along with Marnus Labuschagne took charge of proceedings, once felt Ashwin was being missed. While most criticised the call, former India batting legend Sunil Gavaskar reckoned India has missed a trick. As per Gavaskar, Ashwin should have been included considering Australia have five left-handers in their XI.
“India missed a trick by not playing Ravi Ashwin. He’s the No. 1 Ranked bowler. You don’t look at the pitch for players like him. You are playing a World Test Championships final, and you don’t pick the number one bowler in Test cricket. This decision from Team India is beyond my understanding. I would have picked him in place of Umesh Yadav, who was out of action and looks out of rhythm,” he said.
“There are four left-handed batters in this Australian side, and he has traditionally done well against them. It is shocking that there isn’t any off-spinner in this side,” Gavaskar added further.
Australia reached 327 for 3 at stumps on the the opening day of their World Test Championship Final.
Travis Head and Steve Smith were batting on 146 and 95 respectively at close of play on Day 1 as Australia added 157 runs in the final session which had 34 overs without losing any wicket. The duo added 251 runs for the unbroken fourth wicket stand. Earlier, Australia, who were invited to bat, had added 97 runs in the post-lunch session in 28 overs for the loss of one wicket. They were 73 for 2 at lunch after opener David Warner made 43 off 60 balls. Mohammed Shami, Mohammed Siraj and Shardul Thakur took a wicket each on the day.
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