The Indian team has come to play in the final of the World Test Championship for the second consecutive time. The last time was in 2021 when the team lost against New Zealand due to many mistakes. Something similar has happened for the second time here at The Oval as well. The difference is that at that time the captain was Virat Kohli and the head coach was Ravi Shastri. But this time the captain is five times IPL winner Rohit Sharma and the head coach is Rahul Dravid. But the mistakes remained the same as in Southampton two years ago. There was also discussion on team combination and playing 11, the same is the case here. This time there is a ruckus for not including Ravichandran Ashwin in playing 11. Now former captain Sourav Ganguly, former president of BCCI has also commented on this.
Sourav Ganguly said that if I were the captain, it would have been very difficult for me not to have a quality bowler like Ashwin in the playing 11. But he further added that all the captains have their thinking and their own opinion. He said that Rohit thinks something else about it and I think something else. There is strong opposition to Rohit Sharma’s decision not to include Ashwin and then bowl first after winning the toss. How much his decision is right, will be known only after the result on the last day.
Dada’s blunt statement
If we look at the whole statement of Sourav Ganguly, he said that I do not believe in reactions and these are all reactions. You take all these decisions before the toss and India had decided that they would go with four pacers. In the last few years, he has also got success from this and he did it in the same sense. But if you ask me, if I were the captain, it would have been very difficult for me to keep a quality spinner like Ashwin out of the playing 11. Every captain’s thinking is different. Rohit and I may have different views on this.
Ponting’s also commented on this
Australian veteran Ricky Ponting also supported Sourav Ganguly’s statement. He said that the Indian team wanted to do damage with the new ball. On the other hand, if Australia’s left-handed batsmen were to be put in trouble, then the team needed Ashwin. But if they are not there then there can be a problem. Later this happened. First David Warner’s 43 runs and then Travis Head’s unbeaten 146 runs have increased the team’s problems since day one. Now it has to be seen how far the game goes on the second day.
