It was a difficult decision to leave out Ravichandran Ashwin, admits Ravi Shastri
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Ravi Shastri has stated it was not easy to make the choice of playing Ravindra Jadeja over specialist spinners Ashwin and Kuldeep Yadav but the all-round abilities of the former helped him edge out the others. He further stated that Jadeja’s abilities on flat pitches made him a more suitable option.
While playing on foreign soil, India of late has been presented with a dilemma of which spinner to play considering more often than not there is only space for one. They had picked Ravindra Jadeja, Ravichandran Ashwin and Kuldeep Yadav in the squad for the Caribbean tour and decided to go ahead with Jadeja in both the matches of the series. This has led to something of an outcry against Ashwin’s inclusion, but the Indian coach had a ready justification as to why they had made the choice.
"The reason why we picked Jadeja in the first Test, was in case we fielded, and the track was damp, with his pace, he would have made life a little awkward for the batsmen. He could have been used on the first session of play on day one," Ravi Shastri told the host broadcaster SPN Sports ahead of play on the second day, reported Cricbuzz.
While Ashwin and Yadav provide good turn and more of an orthodox form of spin bowling, Jadeja manages to generate much more pace and bounce along with great accuracy. He has also been in tremendous form of late, proving himself in all the departments of the game consistently. While Yadav and Ashwin haven’t been much worse either, the former lacks the skills in other departments other than bowling while Ashwin has been battling with fitness problems for quite some time now.
"It is a difficult decision to leave out Ashwin or Kuldeep. Look at 'Jaddu', his record is fabulous. You have to see what he brings to the table. He is probably the best fielder in the world now and he has improved his batting like hell. And if you see these tracks (in West Indies); from what I have seen of this track (in Jamaica), I don't think there would be much on offer for the spinners where you would need control," Shastri concluded.
