Have India missed a trick by not playing Ravichandran Ashwin in the ongoing India vs England Test series so far?
That's the answer every cricket lover has been trying to get as Team India skipper Virat Kohli, for the fourth successive time in the series against England, decided to go without present day's most successful off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin at the Oval.
The team management hardly had to apply any mind while picking the pacers after injuries to Mohammed Shami and Ishant Sharma. But there was a need to deliberate over picking between the world No. 2 Test bowler Ravichandran Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja. Though left-arm spinner Axar Patel is also part of the squad, he was not in the scheme of things of Virat Kohli and company.
The decision to go with Jadeja one more time was taken with the intent to strengthen the batting. But in purely cricketing terms, the move was highly unfair as Ashwin has a better Test batting record with five tons to his name over Jadeja, who has just one to show before this name.
To top it, Ashwin played county cricket before the series and has no comparison with Jadeja when one looks at their respective bowling records. When the entire Team India players enjoyed an extended vacation in the United Kingdom after World Test Championship (WTC) final loss, Ashwin was busy finding and honing the right rhythm for the five-Test series against the hosts.
Not to forgot that he was the best Indian bowler in the WTC final by some distance, on a surface where the pacers were supposed to do the job but failed. Ashwin picked up two wickets each in both innings and contributed a few with the bat. In contrast, Jadeja had hardly to show anything in the WTC final with either bat or ball.
Undoubtedly, Jadeja has significantly improved batting and is considered a more dependable batsman than Ashwin. But to accommodate him at the cost of Ashwin, primarily a wicket-taker, can never be justified. The 34-year-old Ashwin earlier took 12 wickets in the Test series victory over Australia with an average of 28.83 along with that match-saving unbeaten 39 in Sydney.
Not his master's voice
The big question then is, "Why Ashwin has failed to find favour with the current team management consisting of skipper Kohli and chief coach Ravi Shastri?"
For someone who has taken 413 wickets from 79 Tests, at an average of under 25, what does his captain expect him to do to include him in the playing eleven?
To find this answer, one has to go back to 2019 when Ashwin revealed in an interview in West Indies that "either I take fifers or get dropped." It was Ashwin's answer to chief coach Ravi Shastri, who had taken to project Kuldeep Yadav as India's first-choice spinner overseas. At the time, Kuldeep had played six Tests and taken 24 wickets to Ashwin's 350 in 65 Tests.
The year 2021 may be different, but the circumstances are almost similar to what they were then. The question now is whether Ashwin is paying the price for speaking his mind at team meetings? The answer is a big Yes. Ashwin is known for his candidness. In the past, Ashwin had never made it any secret that he would want to lead the Indian team one day. That's how Tamil Nadu's star is known for speaking his mind at team meetings where most of his other colleagues "just nod even if they don't agree."
The argument here is that even in conditions like England, where the ball swings more than any other part of the world, there is still scope for India to play Ashwin alongside Jadeja and three seam bowlers. But then Kohli went with this exact combination in the WTC finals and lost that plot against New Zealand.
The Team India management must understand that putting pressure on the home team by playing four pacers may have its advantage, but not playing your best spinner neutralises this advantage. It happened in Leeds, where English part-time off-spinner is Moeen Ali troubled Indian batters consistently.
In the last two years before this series, Jadeja has taken 29 wickets in 13 Tests at a strike rate of 69, while Ashwin has taken 71 wickets in 14 Tests with a much better strike rate of 46 almost during the same period. There is hardly any doubt that Jadeja as a batsman has improved in recent years, but Jadeja as a bowler has faded during the same time.
Ashwin has always shown by bowling on different tracks that having a world-class spinner is better than that fourth-choice seamer who otherwise would not have made it to the team's composition. Here at The Oval also, the inclusion of Umesh Yadav has raised eyebrows because of his inconsistent line in recent years. Yadav has proved to be an expensive option for India when he has been preferred over others. And when the England team has been playing with three specialist left-handers like Rory Burns, Dawid Malan and Moeen Ali, Ashwin's record of dismissing lefties more than 200 times should have played in his favour.
Under the circumstances, where Kohli is fighting with his slump in Test cricket and has not scored a ton in the last 22 months or 70 innings, his captaincy will come under scrutiny. The best result that Team India has got ever since he became skipper in 2015 was in Australia, where Ajinkya Rahane, the leader, turned the tide in India's favour Down Under after that disgraceful 36 all out and a loss under Kohli in the first game.
Who knows, a change in leadership may end Kohli's struggle with the bat, too.
(The writer is a sports journalist)
Disclaimer: The views expressed above are the author’s own. They do not necessarily reflect the views of DH.