Sourav Ganguly said if he was captain he would find it difficult to leave Ravichandran ashwin out of starting XI. Former India captain Sourav Ganguly said that if he was the skipper of the team, he would ‘find it difficult to keep a spinner of Ashwin’s quality out of the XI.’
Rohit Sharma and Co left out the world’s top-ranked Test bowler, Ashwin, and decided to bowl first in the World Test Championship Final against Australia.
“See it’s an afterthought. And I don’t believe in afterthoughts. As a captain, you take a decision before the toss and India had decided that they would go in with 4 fast bowlers. Having said that, in the last couple of years they have had success in the last couple of years with 4 pacers. They have won Test matches but if you ask me, if I was captaining – and every captain is different – Rohit and I think differently. I would find it very hard to keep a spinner of Ashwin’s quality out of the XI,” Ganguly said in the Lunch break.
In the match, Marnus Labuschagne held the fort with a dogged 26 not out as Australia were 73 for two at lunch on Wednesday.
India pacer Mohammed Siraj gave India a perfect start when he dismissed the in-form Usman Khawaja for a duck in the fourth over.
But thereafter, the Australians frustrated the Indians as David Warner made a brisk 60-ball 43 in a 69-run partnership with Labuschagne.
Playing his first Test since the one-off match at Edgbaston last year, Shardul Thakur dismissed Warner.
After that, Labuschagne (26 batting) held the fort Australia going into the lunch break.
Both teams wore black armbands as a mark of respect for those who lost their lives in the tragic train accident in Odisha.
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