Sunil Gavaskar lashes out at Indian management for dropping Ravichandran Ashwin from WTC Final 2023

Ashwin is currently the No. 1 ranked bowler in test cricket.

Team India suffered humiliation in yet another ICC knockout game when they suffered a 209-run thrashing at the hands of Australia in the final of the World Test Championship. Australia was far better than the Indian team in both departments. That loss didn't end well for many former Indian cricketers. Sunil Gavaskar slammed the team and was unhappy with Ravichandran Ashwin's exclusion from the playing XI.

The Indians were nowhere close to the Australian team, which is reflected by the result of the game. But the decision of leaving out Ravichandran Ashwin drew backlash from many former cricketers and cricket pundits. India picked Umesh Yadav in Ashwin's place who took only two wickets in the entire match. Notably, Ashwin is currently the No. 1 ranked bowler in test cricket, and the Indian team leaving him out in the ultimate test fumed Gavaskar.

"Hard to understand"- Sunil Gavaskar on Ravichandran Ashwin not featuring in big matches

Gavaskar reckons that not a single successful Indian cricketer gets treated the way Ravichandran Ashwin has been in his entire career. Ashwin is India's highest wicket-taker in the longest format and the highest in the WTC 2021-23 cycle. Overall, he has taken 474 wickets in 92 games with 32 five-wicket hauls. He is also a capable batter with five test centuries to his name. 

The Indian batting legend wrote in one of his latest columns in Mid-Day that it is baffling to see how India treats Ashwin. He also went on to ask if can India do the same with any No. 1 ranked test batter. Gavaskar wrote, "No other top-class Indian cricketer in the modern era has been treated as bafflingly as Ashwin has been. Tell me if there was a No. 1 ICC-ranked batter in the team, would he have been left out of the playing XI just because in earlier times he had not got runs on a grassy pitch or if he had not scored runs on a dry spin-friendly pitch? Definitely not."

Further, he spoke on the same pattern which has been there within the team for the last few years. Gavaskar highlighted that if Ashwin had got regular chances in overseas tests as well, he would have played 100 games until now. Not only Gavaskar, some other former cricketers questioned India's strategy to drop the veteran off-spinner despite him taking the most wickets in the ongoing WTC cycle.