'He's No. 1 Ranked bowler, this decision is beyond my understanding': Gavaskar slams Rohit

The Australian cricket team dominated the Day 1 of the ICC World Test Championship Final 2023 which is being held at the Kennington Oval ground in London. Travis Head and Steve Smith have added 251 runs for 4th wicket in 370 balls. The Indian pacers on the other hand after inflicting early damage to the Aussie innings were put on the back foot by the batsmen and now the team will have to walk out with a new strategy on Day 2. 

Indian skipper Rohit Sharma while walking out for the toss shocked criekct world by not playing the world's number one Test bowler Ravichandran Ashwin in the all-important match of the WTC Final. Former Indian batsman Sunil Gavaskar has slammed Indian captain Rohit Sharma for the decision of not playing R Ashwin in the WTC 2023 Final. 

'India missed a trick...': Sunil Gavaskar 

"India missed the trick by not playing Ravi Ashwin. He's the No. 1 Ranked bowler. You don't look at the pitch for players like him", Sunil Gavaskar said on Star Sports on air. 

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"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", Sunil Gavaskar added. 

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Further adding to his words, Sunil Gavaskar opined that the Australian team has four left-handed batsmen and R Ashwin also has a very good record against them but he was shocked after not seeing any off-spinner in the side.

“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", Sunil Gavaskar said. 

Due to the seam-friendly conditions of England, the Indian team went on with a combination of four pacers and one spinner in the name of all-rounder Ravindra Jadeja. Umesh Yadav was included as the fourth seamer against Australia in the WTC Final vs Australia. Team India had felt the absence of an extra pacer during the WTC Final 2021 vs New Zealand and it was one of the main reasons behind their loss in that match.