Former England captain Michael Vaughan has been left baffled by India not playing all-rounder Ravichandran Ashwin in ICC World Test Championship 2021-2023 final against Australia at The Oval. Although the move was neither surprising nor a novel one, it is still understandable why a section of experts and fans are finding faults with captain Rohit Sharma‘s tactics in his first-ever overseas Test as captain.
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The sight of Ashwin missing his sixth straight Test in England has stirred a debate across social media platforms. The team management preferring a pace-bowling all-rounder in Shardul Thakur over Ashwin has led the latter’s supporters question if a bowler is supposed to pick wickets or score runs to be considered for a spot in the Indian XI.
For those who don’t know, Ashwin’s last Test in England was the inaugural Test Championship final against New Zealand at The Rose Bowl a couple of years ago.
Michael Vaughan Baffled By Ravi Ashwin Not Playing WTC Final 2023
Vaughan, 48, took to social media platform Twitter to label Ashwin’s absence as a “big mistake”. A major reason why so many experts and fans believe that Ashwin should’ve played is the nature of this venue to accommodate a couple of spinners in this format.
“No @ashwinravi99 for #India is a big mistake .. !! #WTC2023,” read Vaughan’s tweet.
No @ashwinravi99 for #India is a big mistake .. !! #WTC2023
— Michael Vaughan (@MichaelVaughan) June 7, 2023
It is worth mentioning that this isn’t the first time when Vaughan has extended support towards Ashwin. In fact, criticizing the Indian team management’s decision around leaving out Ashwin even in an overseas Test has become more of a ritual for the Englishman.
For the unversed, Vaughan had also tweeted when Ashwin was benched in the first Test of India’s tour of England 2021 at Trent Bridge. Similarly, Vaughan had uploaded a tweet when Ashwin was left out of the second Test at Lord’s back in the day.
Virat Kohli, who had led India in the first four Tests of that series, had tried explaining the rationale behind not including Ashwin in the Playing XI. That said, the same wasn’t taken well by the Indian fans as they also had their reasons for supporting the off-spinner.
Vaughan, however, continued with his knack of posting an almost identical tweet when Ashwin didn’t play the fifth Test of the series at Edgbaston last year.
