“It has worked in the past” - Team India bowling coach defends decision to drop Ashwin for WTC final

Team India bowling coach Paras Mhambrey has defended the decision to drop off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin for the World Test Championship (WTC) final against Australia. He admitted that it was a tough decision, but added that conditions dictated the move.

India’s decision to leave out Ashwin from the playing XI for the WTC final, which began at The Oval on Wednesday, June 7, has been criticized by a number of prominent former cricketers like Sunil Gavaskar and Ricky Ponting.

India had a poor day in the field after winning the toss and bowling first under overcast conditions. They reduced Australia to 76/3, but a fourth-wicket stand of 251* between Travis Head (146*) and Steven Smith (95*) lifted Australia to 327/3 by stumps on Day 1.

At a press conference following the end of the day's play, Mhambrey was asked about India’s decision to drop Ashwin and go in with only one spinner in Ravindra Jadeja for the WTC final.

“It's always a very difficult decision to drop a champion bowler like that. But I thought looking at the conditions in the morning, having the additional seamer would definitely be beneficial," he replied.

"And it also has worked in the past. If you look at the earlier games that we’ve played, the last Test match, we went in with four seamers which did really well,” Mhambrey added.

Earlier, speaking after winning the toss, skipper Rohit Sharma had also stated that the decision to leave out Ashwin was a tough one, but the right one keeping the conditions in mind.

None of the Indian bowlers could stop the flow of runs on the opening day of the WTC 2023 final. Mohammed Shami went for 77 runs in 20 overs, Mohammed Siraj for 67 in 19, and Umesh Yadav for 54 in 14.

All-rounder Shardul Thakur, who was preferred over Ashwin, conceded 75 runs in 18 overs, while Ravindra Jadeja registered figures of 0/48 from 14 overs.

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“We weren't disciplined about our bowling” - Team India bowling coach Mhambrey

Reflecting on India’s bowling performance, Mhambrey admitted that the pacers started well, but added that the overall effort lacked discipline.

“In terms of the bowling, I thought we could have been more disciplined, definitely. I thought we started off very well for the first 12-15 overs when we really bowled in the right areas," Mhambrey said.

"But maybe after a little bit, I thought we kind of weren't disciplined about our bowling. And that's one of the reasons I thought we conceded more runs than we ideally would have preferred,” he added.

Siraj struck early for India, getting the big wicket of Usman Khawaja (0). Thakur sent back David Warner for 43, while Shami accounted for Marnus Labuschagne (26). However, Head and Smith made India toil for the rest of the day.