Resuming their play on Thursday (March 2), Australia managed to secure only 88 runs lead over India. It was Ravindra Jadeja who shined with the ball for the hosts and picked up four wickets. Ravichandran Ashwin and Umesh Yadav also grabbed three scalps each for their team. However, Ashwin was bought very late into the attack by Rohit Sharma.
At the start of Day 2, Rohit went with Mohammed Siraj and Ravindra Jadeja and later replaced Siraj with Axar Patel., while Ashwin was kept waiting by the Indian skipper. The Tamil Nadu off-spinner was given the ball only a few minutes before the drinks break. Soon after coming into the attack, he broke the dangerous-looking partnership of Peter Handscomb and Cameron Green in his very next over.
India legend Sunil Gavaskar didn’t seem to like Rohit’s decision and questioned why a quality bowler like Ashwin was introduced so late. He also criticised the match-up ploy of Rohit.
“I don’t understand this too much focus on the match-up thing. Because there were two right-handers in the crease, Ashwin wasn’t brought on till the last over before the drinks break. Because of those match-ups, the two left-armers bowled, then what happened? Who gets the breakthrough? Ravichandran Ashwin. He gets the wicket of Handscomb. He is a top player, he is going to get wickets, doesn’t matter if it’s a right-hander or a left-hander. He is a great bowler. Ashwin has 450-plus wickets and he should have been given the ball a lot earlier,” Gavaskar said on Star Sports in the post-lunch session,” said Gavaskar on Star Sports.
Notably, Ashwin is the second-highest wicket-taker for India in the ongoing BGT 2023 and is currently the world’s no. 1 ranked Test bowler.
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