"I would find it very, very hard" - Sourav Ganguly on India leaving out Ravichandran Ashwin ahead of WTC Final

Former Indian skipper Sourav Ganguly gave his opinion on whether Team India made a mistake by leaving out veteran off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin from their playing XI for the World Test Championship (WTC) final against Australia at The Oval.

In the build-up to the game, there was a lot of talk about how India might use both Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja as The Oval has historically had some help for the spinners. However, India decided to go with just a solitary spinner in Jadeja and four seam-bowling options.

Speaking to Star Sports, here's what Sourav Ganguly had to say about whether he would have played Ravichandran Ashwin if he was Team India's captain:

"If you ask me, if I was captaining, every captain is different. Rohit is different, I think differently. I would find it very, very hard to keep a spinner of Ashwin's quality out of the first XI."

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Sourav Ganguly also gave Team India's perspective

While Sourav Ganguly accepted that leaving Ravichandran Ashwin out was a very tough decision, he also tried to understand the thought process of the Indian team and why they avoided playing two spinners in these conditions.

Ganguly shed light on how India have succeeded in such conditions with the theory of four seamers and a solitary spinner. He stated:

"It's an afterthought and I don't believe in afterthoughts in cricket. As a captain, you take a decision before the toss and India decided that they would field and that's why the decision to go in with 4 fast bowlers. Having said that, in the last couple of years, they have had success with 4 fast bowlers in these conditions. They have won Tests with 4 fast bowlers."

Looking at the conditions and the way things have panned out for India on Day 1, they might look back at dropping Ashwin as a mistake.