Legendary India batter Sachin Tendulkar questioned the Indian Cricket Team’s selection and omission of R Ashwin from the playing XI after a heartbreaking defeat in the World Test Championship (WTC) Final against Australia on Sunday at the Oval in London.
Team India threw away their chance to win the WTC Final for the second straight season as India struggled with both bat and ball against a well-prepared Australian side. It was a below-par performance from Team India with the batters failing to put up a fight on Day 5 in the 444-run chase.
Sachin Tendulkar on Sunday took to Twitter to congratulate the Australian cricket team for winning the WTC Final with flying colors. In his tweet, the batting great, Tendulkar also hailed Travis Head and Steve Smith for setting up a solid foundation for an amazing triumph.
Further, the legendary Indian cricketer lamented the decision of excluding Ravichandran Ashwin’s exclusion from the XI for the game. “I fail to understand the exclusion of @ashwinravi99 in the playing XI, who is currently the number one Test bowler in the world,” Tendulkar expressed his disappointment on Twitter.
“Like I had mentioned before the match, skillful spinners don’t always rely on turning tracks, they use drift in the air and bounce off the surface to disguise their variations. Not to forget, Australia had 5 left-handers out of their top 8 batters,” Sachin added.
Meanwhile, Australia thumped India by a huge margin of 209 runs on Day 5 of WTC to mark their victory. Scott Boland (3/46), who removed Kohli and Jadeja in a single, was the best bowler for the game. Scott’s impressive bowling decisively ended the contest and the rest was a formality. It is to be noted that India has gone 10 years without winning a men’s global trophy.