INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
NEW DELHI: The team management's decision to rest Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma for the last two ODIs against West Indies has sparked
However, Ravichandran Ashwin stepped up to defend the call, stating that the critics were merely finding faults for the sake of it.On social
media and in the opinions of a few former cricketers, displeasure was expressed over keeping two key players like Kohli and Sharma on the
benches, particularly in the year leading up to the 50-over World Cup."So many players are recovering at the NCA
(Jasprit) Bumrah is back after a long break
Prasidh Krishna also made a return after an injury break
It seems that people are faulting team management just for the sake of it," said Ashwin on his YouTube channel.The senior spinner said
victory cannot be taken for granted in international cricket."Some (people) were shocked because we lost to a team that didn't qualify for
Many people think that India's only job in international cricket is to win the World Cup
People think India are favourites to win the World Cup because of the IPL," Ashwin said.Even though India lost the second ODI against the
Windies, they managed to register a 2-1 series win eventually.England has taken the cricketing world by storm while playing the aggressive
'Bazball' brand of game.However, Ashwin said it will be tough to see India adopting such tactics considering the team has embraced a period
of transition."We are playing Test cricket really well
But we will go through a transition very soon, and things won't be easy during that phase," he said.Ashwin also cited the difference in
and assume a player throws his bat at everything like Harry Brook and gets out and we lose two Test matches
What will we do? Will we back the Bazball and the players? We will drop at least four players from our playing XI.""That's how our culture
It works for them (England) because their management is fully in sync with this style of play, their selectors back the players to play this
way.""In fact, even their crowd and Test match-watching public are backing the team in this process
But we can't do this," the ace spinner said.The ICC World Cup 2023 will be held in India across October and November and Ashwin appealed to
fans to support the team, and stay away from negativity."Winning a world cup is not easy...just because we play a certain player or drop a
certain player, we can't win
All of us are hindsight kings
Hindsight doesn't work here.""We have qualified for the semifinals of almost all major tournaments but on that day, we have not been good
Let us send them (to the WC) with a lot of positivity," he said.While talking about the Ashes series which saw England bouncing back from
0-2 to level the series 2-2, Ashwin said Australia might have been hindered by the injury-enforced absence of veteran spinner Nathan
