Team India could have thought differently if they had a seam-bowling all-rounder: Zaheer Khan on Ravichandran Ashwin's omission from playing XI
Former Indian pacer Zaheer Khan reckons Team India's playing XI is suffering due to the absence of seam-bowling all-rounder Ravichandran Ashwin. Khan was asked by a fan whether India should have picked a spinner in Ashwin regardless of the conditions on offer while citing Shane Warne as an example.
Khan responded by saying that the reason why Warne used to play every game for Australia irrespective of conditions apart is that he used to be the lone spinner in the playing XI. According to Khan, Ravindra Jadeja is playing that role for India in the ongoing series.
"If you talk about Shane Warne, he used to play as a lone spinner in the team. And everyone knows the kind of bowler that Warne was. And India is already playing one spinner here (Ravindra Jadeja).
Zaheer Khan further added that the lack of seam-bowling all-rounder and the fact that India have more bowling options compared to batting options has forced the visitors to go in with Jadeja over Ashwin as the lone spinner.
He explained:
''However, India could have thought differently as per the conditions if they had a seam-bowling all-rounder. When you decided the playing XI, you were always concerned about the lack of batting options as compared to bowling. And we saw that, in the first innings, the concern is valid because even though your bowlers performed with the bat at Lord's, you can't expect them to score in every innings,"
There has been a lot of debate regarding captain Virat Kohli and the management’s decision to play Ishant Sharma over ace spinner Ravichandran Ashwin in the last two Tests.
While Ishant Sharma vindicated the call in the Lord’s Test by claiming five crucial wickets across two innings, the veteran seamer has struggled for rhythm in the Leeds Test thus far.
In a team sport, you can't be fair with everyone: Zaheer Khan
The former cricketer further added that India would have gone with a different individual had they picked the playing XI from a bowling perspective. However, since they gave more importance to batting and pace bowling, Ashwin had to miss out.
''So if they had looked from the bowling perspective, then they would have gone with a different individual. But, here, more than individual, they have given importance to pace bowling and batting," said Khan.
Dropping a player of the stature of Ravichandran Ashwin is certainly not easy for any captain. However, Zaheer Khan feels that such situations can be easily tackled if the captain is honest and transparent in his communication with the individual.
"If you are honest in your communication with a player, then the player would be satisfied with the direction in which the team is going. In a team sport, you can't be fair with everyone but you can be honest even if the thought process is wrong.
Meanwhile, Ravichandran Ashwin took to his Twitter account on Thursday and posted a mirror image of himself batting in the nets. He captioned the post:
"The desire to ignite something different every day never burns out..."