"It was grabbed avidly with the excuse of team balance” - Indian legend slams team management for unfairly treating R Ashwin

Former India opener Sunil Gavaskar has slammed the team management for often excluding Ravichandran Ashwin from the playing XI in Tests for the sake of team balance. Ashwin announced his retirement from international cricket immediately after the third Test of the ongoing India-Australia series Down Under.

The 38-year-old played only one of the first three Tests, as India opted to use one spinner in each outing. Washington Sundar played the first match in Perth and Ashwin replaced him in Adelaide before Ravindra Jadeja was picked for the Brisbane Test.

Despite being part of the squad in multiple SENA tours over his illustrious 14-year Test career, Ashwin played only 26 matches in the four countries.

Criticizing the Indian team management about the same in his column for Mid Day, Gavaskar wrote:

"Cricket being a batters game, the fact that he invariably won the Player of the Series award didn’t win him kudos among the batter’s fraternity. Every time there was even a five per cent excuse to leave him out of the eleven, it was grabbed avidly with the excuse of team balance."

Gavaskar also questioned how the same rules weren't applied to batters who struggled in different parts of the world.

"At home, there was no way he could be left out because the management knew that without him, they could not win the game. If the excuse was that the pitch and conditions wouldn’t suit the ICC number one ranked bowler, how come the same excuse was not used for the batters even if they were not top ranked by ICC, but who struggled in similar pitches and conditions in the SENA countries?," he asked.

Ashwin finished his career as India's second all-time leading wicket-taker overall (765 wickets) and in Tests (537 wickets) behind Anil Kumble.

The champion off-spinner also boasts the joint-most Player of the Series awards in Tests with 11 (tied with Sri Lanka's Muthiah Muralidaran).

"Ashwin would have made a fine captain for India" - Sunil Gavaskar

Australia v India - Men's 2nd Test Match: Day 2 - Source: Getty

Sunil Gavaskar believes Ravichandran Ashwin could have been an excellent captaincy option for Team India if given the opportunity.

Despite playing 287 matches for India across formats, the veteran cricketer never led the side.

"Ashwin would have made a fine captain for India, but he was denied even the honor of being the vice-captain. There was an opportunity to give him the belated honour even if it was for a token Test match and a limited overs bilateral series, but that also was denied to him. That’s why it was so good to see Rohit Sharma ask him to lead the team out on his 100th Test match," Gavaskar wrote in the same column.

Ashwin has extensive captaincy experience in domestic cricket and the IPL, where he led the Punjab Kings (PBKS) for two seasons — in 2018 and 2019.

Apart from his incredible bowling numbers, the Tamil Nadu veteran scored over 4,000 runs in his international career, including six Test centuries.