“Felt like I was being thrown under the bus”. This is what India’s premier off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin experienced when the then head coach Ravi Shastri made a statement at the former’s expense during the Australian series in 2018. Those closely observing Indian cricket for a while will not be surprised to know Ashwin was never in the good books of the head coach and captain Virat Kohli. After the crushing loss to Pakistan in the final of the 2017 Champions Trophy, both Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja were dropped from the ODIs and T-20s for a while. However, Jadeja made his way back into the limited over formats within a year, the same fortune eluded Ashwin.
To add salt to the wounds, Ashwin was cold-shouldered in the Test cricket as well, the only format he used to feature in regularly after 2017. He got constantly sidelined to accommodate Jadeja and the team management ostensibly attributed the decision to bolster the batting order. However, stats don’t lie and are totally divorced from the thinking of team management.
For instance, in Tests, Ashwin has 427 wickets from 81 games and scored 2755 runs, including 5 centuries. Whereas Jadeja, in Tests, has 232 scalps to his credit from 57 matches and scored one ton and 2195 runs. Even with the batting averages of 27 and 33 respectively there is nothing much to separate the duo. Also, Ashwin braved an intimidating Australian attack at Sydney earlier in 2021 to eke out a draw on the last day along with Hanuma Vihari and also scored a match-winning century immediately afterward against England in the Chennai Test at a critical point in the match. So, the justification of Ashwin’s exclusion simply falls flat.
There are strong indications that the non-inclusion of Ashwin is due to matters other than cricket. None other than the legendary Sunil Gavaskar has vouched for the same. “For far too long Ashwin has suffered not for his bowling ability of which only the churlish will have doubts, but for his forthrightness and speaking his mind at meetings where most others just nod even if they don’t agree.” These were the words of the Little Master in a column for a reputed sports publication. Now, the questions beckon, is this the right manner to treat a player of Ashwin’s stature? Can a player be dropped for speaking his mind out? Do just “Yes Men” merit a place in the playing XI? Hope clear answers for these questions come out someday.
In recent times, prior to the T-20 World Cup disaster, the veteran off-spinner was made to cool his heels in all the Test matches in England. This even though Ashwin looked a better bowler by a mile than others in the WTC final against New Zealand and was plying his wares in the county cricket for Surrey. In the Southampton Test that India lost badly to Kiwis, he got 4 wickets overall on a swing and seam-friendly wicket, where the likes of Bumrah, Ishant, Jadeja etc failed to make an impact. Still, the think-tank in Team India chose to ignore him for reasons unknown.
“Why is Ashwin being dropped for so long? It is a matter of investigation. Across formats, he is your best spinner with more than 600 international wickets. He is your senior-most spinner and you don’t pick him. I fail to understand,” Dilip Venksarkar echoed on Ashwin’s continued absence from the Test squad.
“The non-selection of ashwinravi99 has to be greatest NON selection we have ever witnessed across 4 Tests in the UK !!! 413 Test wickets & 5 Test 100s !!!! Madness,” Michael Vaughan said when Kohli clarified in advance that chances of Ashwin playing in the Oval Test are almost zilch.
Well in such circumstances there is nothing like performing with a vengeance to make your detractors look like mere fools. And this is exactly what Ashwin has done once he got an opportunity to prove his worth in the T-20 WC games after the consecutive losses. Since his inclusion in the Afghanistan T-20 match, Ashwin has only proved through his performance that Team India missed a bankable performer and a total team man.
However, things don’t end here as Ashwin is only the tip of the iceberg. There are several other players to suffer under the whims and fancies of Kohli-Shastri: Kuldeep Yadav, Karun Nair happen to be a few players to mysteriously vanish into obscurity. So, the new dispensation of Rohit Sharma and Rahul Dravid has to ensure that the saga involving Ashwin does not find resonance with other talented players and the experienced tweaker gets the respect he rightfully deserves in the future.
