Ravichandran Ashwin - The world's best spinner not good enough for India

Even before both captains walked out for the toss at The Oval, the pre-match chatter had revolved around Ravichandran Ashwin – one of the world’s premier red-ball spinners, but also someone who had, to the surprise of many, regularly been omitted by India.

Thus, when the coin landed in England’s favour and Joe Root began talking about less important things such as what he wanted to do and what changes England had made, the Indian faithful were becoming restless.

Not just because they were anyway going to be subjected to another intense batting examination, but also because the Ashwin conundrum – a matter that had recently been discussed in Indian households more than politics, was seemingly nearing a closure.

Virat Kohli strolled across to where the microphone was, grabbed it like a kid being starved of candy and then quickly went about his thoughts on the conditions. Then, the moment that everyone was waiting for came about – the moment where Ashwin would be welcomed back into the fold.

It’s fair to say then that the Indian fans were disappointed. Not because Ishant Sharma and Mohammed Shami were set to miss the game but because their replacements were cricketers not named Ashwin. So much for the hype, eh?

Immediately, Twitter was abuzz with opinions on the Indian think-tank’s decision. Plenty of knives began being sharpened and a few pundits got into the act as well. Despite the varying degree of cricketing pedigree on the social media platform, one theme remained common – Ashwin had again been omitted and quite inexplicably at that.

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 !!!! #ENGvIND Madness …

— Michael Vaughan (@MichaelVaughan) September 2, 2021

To put things into perspective, Ashwin has not bowled a ball in anger since representing Surrey in a County Championship fixture against Somerset in July. The game, which took place in the aftermath of the World Test Championship final, was looked upon as one that Ashwin was using to maintain his rhythm and one that would help him be ready for the English challenge.

Since then, though, India have played 6 different bowlers, changed the batting positions of Ajinkya Rahane, Ravindra Jadeja and Rishabh Pant, seen Kohli prod at deliveries outside off stump umpteen times and endured KL Rahul’s rise to stardom and almost instantaneous fall from grace. Ashwin has even batted left-handed in the nets during that period, for goodness’ sake.

The Test recall, however, has remained elusive and the "strategy" of not letting Ashwin take the field, for some reason or another, has continued adopting ludicrous proportions. Remember Kohli saying at the toss that Jadeja was better suited to bowl to left-handed batters, ahead of Ashwin, who has an unreliable bowling average of 21.88 against such batters?

Ashwin picked up a six-wicket haul for Surrey

Ravichandran Ashwin has taken 71 Test wickets since the start of 2019

Since the start of 2019, Ashwin has taken 71 wickets in Test cricket at an average of 20.33 which, incidentally, is the highest tally of any Indian bowler during that phase. The next best is Mohammed Shami, who has accounted for 53 batters. Thus, wicket-taking pedigree is certainly not something that is holding India back from unleashing Ashwin.

No Indian bowler has taken more wickets than Ashwin since 2019

The problem, then, could lie in the “template” that Kohli has set out – a template, one mustn’t forget, included Ashwin in the WTC final and was intended to “take the pitch out of the equation”. Now, though, it seems that anyone but Ashwin can become a part of that template just because he can run in from afar and bowl what many refer to as fast bowling.

Though there is a bit of sense in that argument, considering it is much easier to control the opposition’s run-scoring by having four pacers operate in tandem, it becomes moot when the bowler being excluded is Ashwin because, well, he is the best red-ball spinner on the planet currently.

Apart from that, Ashwin, in contrast to his early career, has developed a modus operandi that relies less on the pitch on offer. Instead, he has become a bowler capable of beating the batters in the air, with his accuracy, dip and drift serving him well even in adverse circumstances. A tally of 39 wickets from 11 overseas matches (since 2018) drives that point home too.

Another reasoning the Indian team management have used is that they want batters who can bowl because Cheteshwar Pujara and Rahane can’t buy a run and Kohli, despite a couple of half-centuries, is not the all-conquering force he was in 2018. Pant, too, seems to have fallen off a cliff.

From that perspective then, it is quite prudent not to have Ashwin in the team, considering he has scored just the five Test hundreds, right?

I really hope it works but I am flabbergasted that India have gone in without Ashwin again.

— Harsha Bhogle (@bhogleharsha) September 2, 2021

For a long time, experts have professed that the best way to pick a team to take 20 wickets is if the best bowlers are selected, irrespective of the conditions. And, as things stand, it is very hard to think that Ashwin doesn’t qualify as one of India’s five best bowlers.

Not only does he challenge both edges of the bat – something that is considered exceptional for a spinner, he has enough tactical and technical nous to outwit batters, even when they think they have established themselves at the crease.

The fact that it has come at a time when Ashwin has begun justifying that his record isn’t skewed because of his home record, only smacks of more irony – an element that has unwittingly started to define Kohli’s captaincy era.

Nevertheless, it is quite funny that the world’s best spinner isn’t deemed good enough to play for India in each country he sets foot in. Maybe the fans were expecting too much when they thought India would actually opt for Ashwin at The Oval.

When talking about a bowler of Ashwin’s caliber, though, even that seems too little!