BGT 2024-25: Here's why India have dropped both R Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja from Perth test?

Ravindra Jadeja picked up 10 wickets in the last test against New Zealand.

In one of the most shocking decisions made by an Indian captain-coach ever, Jasprit Bumrah and Gautam Gambhir decided to omit two of their greatest-ever cricketers, R Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja, and go with the inexperienced Washington Sundar in the first test of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy (BGT) 2024-25.

The Australia vs India series got underway on Friday at the Optus Stadium in Perth. Bumrah, the stand-in skipper in the absence of Rohit Sharma, won the toss and elected to bat first.

All well and good till then. However, the fans and experts had their jaws dropped when they couldn’t find either Jadeja or Ashwin in the XI. And it wasn’t as if India were fielding an all-pace attack either.

India picked three seamers – Harshit Rana, Bumrah, and Mohammed Siraj – one seam-bowling all-rounder in Nitish Reddy and one spinner in Sundar.

This is only the fifth time in the 119 tests since December 2012 that India don’t have both Ashwin and Jadeja in their playing XI, and it is the second instance in Perth. While in the 2018 Perth test, India had gone with a four-man pace attack, here their only spinner in the line-up is Sundar.

Why India have picked Sundar over both Ravindra Jadeja and R Ashwin?

It seems like multiple factors brought this decision. India wanted their only spinner an off-spinner who would turn the ball away from Australia’s left-handers, including Travis Head, thus Jadeja was ditched. And they also wanted to keep the batting depth, and hence went with Sundar over Ashwin. Further, India might have felt that Sundar is a better off-spinner to exploit Perth’s bounce with his overspin.

To conclude, India wanted an off-spinner in their side because of Australia’s several left-handers, and Sundar might have edged over Ashwin due to his better batting ability.

Recently, Sundar took 16 wickets in two tests against New Zealand. And just before that series, he had struck a century in the Ranji Trophy. Sundar is clearly a better batsman than Ashwin. Not to forget, he made his debut at Gabba three years ago and made a solid half-century.

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