Was Ravichandran Ashwin Discriminated Against In Overseas Tests? Sunil Gavaskar Blasts Indian Team Management (Photo credit: BCCI)
Former India cricketer Sunil Gavaskar has said that Ravichandran Ashwin would have made a fine skipper for India, but he was denied the honour of even being a vice-captain. He expressed his disappointment with the Indian team management's handling of Ashwin, alleging that they sidelined him in the name of team balance.
Ashwin featured in just one of the first three Tests in the current series. He played in the Adelaide pink-ball Test where India received a 10-wicket thrashing and was dropped for the Brisbane Test, where he was replaced by allrounder Ravindra Jadeja, who proved his case with a crucial 77-run innings.
Ashwin retired as India's second-highest wicket-taker in Tests, just behind former India cricketer Anil Kumble. He announced his retirement on the final day of the Brisbane Test.
"Ashwin would have made a fine captain for India, but he was denied even the honour of being the vice-captain. There was an opportunity to give him the belated honour even if it was for a token Test and a limited-overs bilateral series, but that also was denied to him," Gavaskar wrote in his column for Mid-Day.
India surprisingly deployed a rotating policy for the only spinner's spot, with Washington Sundar playing in Perth, Ashwin in Adelaide and Jadeja in Brisbane.
"Cricket is 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 per cent excuse to leave him out of the XI, it was grabbed with the excuse of team balance," Gavaskar wrote.
Ashwin made a surprise announcement of his retirement after the drawn third Test at Brisbane. The veteran off-spinner picked up just one wicket during the tour, including the 10-wicket defeat in Adelaide.
Ashwin retired with a stellar record of 537 Test wickets at an average of 24, in addition to scoring 3,503 runs, including six hundreds.
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