Legendary India cricketer Sunil Gavaskar once again hit out at the team management for their treatment of premier spinner Ravichandran Ashwin. Gavaskar was critical of Ashwin being left out of the playing XI regularly and stated that somebody with the off-spinner’s record should not be excluded from the team so often. The star off-spinner wasn’t picked in the playing XIs against West Indies which Virat Kohli and his troops won 2-0. Instead, Ravindra Jadeja was given the nod despite Ashwin’s
Ashwin made an immediate impact in the first Test against South Africa as he scalped two crucial wickets in the final session of Day 2, however, he failed to make any impact in the morning session of third day when Dean Elgar and Faf du Plessis build a good partnership to blunt the Indian attack.
Gavaskar stated Ashwin is a wicket-taking bowler but needs to feel confidence of the players around him to perform at his optimum level.
“Ashwin should be a certainty. The fact that he has not been made to feel the comfort level is the reason why we are seeing him struggle a little bit,” Gavaskar told official broadcasters after the end of first session on Day 3.
“He has also got to feel he has got the confidence of the people around him. When you don’t have the confidence of people around you, when you keep getting sidelined, then you try a little too hard.
“I think, there is always these little comparisons he suffers from. When playing in Australia, he is compared to Nathan Lyon. He is doing that doing this. But Lyon is bowling to the Indian batsmen. Similarly, in England, when Moeen Ali got 6 or 7 wickets, you say he didn’t get any wickets’. It can happen.
