WTC Final: Not picking Ashwin was purely based on conditions, bowling coach Mhambrey defends flop move

India bowling coach Paras Mhambrey said the tough decision to leave out the world’s number one ranked bowler Ravichandran Ashwin from the World Test Championship final was based purely on conditions.

India’s bowling coach Paras Mhambrey defends Ravichandran Ashwin’s exclusion from XI against Australia in the WTC Final. | Photo Credit: K. Pichumani

India bowling coach Paras Mhambrey stated that the team management decided to drop off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin based on the conditions seen on the morning of the match.

“You can always say in hindsight that playing an additional spinner would have been helpful, but looking at the conditions in the morning, I thought that having an additional seamer will be beneficial. It’s always a difficult decision to drop a champion bowler like Ashwin. There is no doubt that he is a world class bowler,” Mhambrey said.

The Indian bowlers should have been more disciplined, Mhambrey added. “We started well. For the first 15 overs, we bowled in the right areas. But after that, we should have been more disciplined. That is one of the reasons why we conceded more runs than we would have preferred,” Mhambrey said.

Australian batter Travis Head, who scored his first Test century outside his home nation, explained that he enjoyed batting with Steve Smith.

“Steve is one of the best players in the world, and he is our best batter. I’ve always said that batting with him feels like you are in the shadow. You can sneak under the radar and go about your business because of the attention he draws from the opposition. We complement each other well,” Head said.