IND vs SA | Baffled Ravi Ashwin has been sidelined so often, says Sunil Gavaskar

Legendary India cricketer Sunil Gavaskar has once again slammed the team management for their treatment of premier spinner Ravichandran Ashwin. Gavaskar was critical of Ashwin being left out of the playing XI regularly and stated that somebody with the 33-year-old’s record should not be excluded from the team so often. The star off-spinner wasn’t picked in both the playing XIs against West Indies which Virat Kohli and his men won 2-0. Instead, Ravindra Jadeja was given the nod.

Ashwin made an immediate impact in the first Test against South Africa as he scalped two quickfire crucial wickets in the final session of Day 2, however, he failed to make an impact in the morning session of the third day when Dean Elgar and Faf du Plessis build a good 115 run partnership to blunt the Indian attack. Ashwin eventually bounced back and ended up picking his 27th five-wicket haul at stumps on Day 3.

Gavaskar stated Ashwin is a wicket-taking bowler and he is struggling a bit because he needs to feel the confidence of the players around him to perform at his optimum level.

“He has also got to feel he has got the confidence of the people around him. When you don’t have the confidence of people around you, when you keep getting sidelined, then you try a little too hard,” Gavaskar told official broadcasters after the end of the first session on Day 3, reported Hindustan Times.

Gavaskar also believes Ashwin is suffering because of the regular comparisons that are made of him with other spinners around the world.

“When playing in Australia, he is compared to Nathan Lyon. He is doing that doing this. But Lyon is bowling to the Indian batsmen. Similarly, in England, when Moeen Ali got 6 or 7 wickets, you say he didn’t get any wickets’. It can happen,” he said.

“I think there is more to it than just cricketing performances which is the reason he just finds himself sidelined more often than somebody with his record should be. Somebody who has got almost 350 wickets can’t be sidelined as regularly as he has been,” he concluded, hitting out at the team management for how Ashwin is being treated.