"Looking for Ashwin"- Off-spinner's wife tweets as his daughter takes a peek at the Kia Oval
Indian cricket fans are missing the presence of veteran off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin in the playing XI in the ongoing Oval Test and it seems like his family shares the same sentiment.
Ashwin's better half Prithi Narayanan took to her official Twitter account on Thursday to share a video of their daughter taking a peek at the Kia Oval ahead of the start of the 1st day. Prithi proceeded to add a sarcastic caption to the video as she wrote:
"Looking for @ashwinravi99."
Ravichandran Ashwin was not included in the playing XI for the fourth game in a row in the ongoing five-match Test series against England on Thursday morning.
Skipper Virat Kohli once again went with his 4 seamers + 1 spinner template as India opted for the inclusion of Shardul Thakur and Umesh Yadav in the place of Ishant Sharma and Mohammed Shami.
Ashwin yet to feature in current Test series; Ravindra Jadeja's struggles with the bat continue at the Oval
This is the fourth time that Ravindra Jadeja has leapfrogged Ashwin in the playing XI because of the latter's superior batting skills.
However, Jadeja has found it tough in the series with both bat and ball. The Saurashtra all-rounder has spent a considerable amount at the crease but has failed to convert his starts into big runs.
In six innings, Jadeja has managed 143 runs at an average of 23.83 Meanwhile, the two wickets he has picked up have come at the cost of 93 runs.
India made a tactical change in their batting order on Day One at the Oval as they promoted Ravindra Jadeja ahead of vice-captain Ajinkya Rahane after the visitors lost three quick wickets in the morning session. Jadeja (10 off 34 balls) did well to survive the morning session but he eventually fell shortly after the lunch break.
It was Chris Woakes who proved to be India's nemesis yet again as he induced an outside edge off Jadeja's bat before Joe Root completed a simple catch in the cordon.