- Saturday, April 27, 2024
By: Shubham Ghosh
INDIAN National Congress leader Shashi Tharoor on Thursday (2) expressed shock over the playing XI that India picked for the fourth Test against England starting at the Kennington Oval the same day.
The veteran parliamentarian from the southern Indian state of Kerala, who is known to be a cricket follower, was not convinced about India overlooking veteran off spinner Ravichandran Ashwin and speedster Mohammed Shami for the key clash in the five-match series.
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Tharoor even went on to say that not having those two bowlers, who have a combined total of 600 wickets in the long format, in the playing XI was like having a death wish.
In a tweet, the 65-year-old said, “I can’t believe they left out Ashwin again, on England’s most spin-friendly ground. This team is unbelievable. You pick your five best bowlers, @ashwinravi99 has to be the first or second name. Omitting him & @MdShami11 at the Oval is like a death-wish — as if you want to lose!”
I can’t believe they left out Ashwin again, on England’s most spin-friendly ground. This team is unbelievable. You pick your five best bowlers, @ashwinravi99 has to be the first or second name. Omitting him & @MdShami11 at the Oval is like a death-wish — as if you want to lose!
— Shashi Tharoor (@ShashiTharoor) September 2, 2021
Ashwin, who is the highest wicket-taker in Tests among India’s current bowlers, has not got to play a single match in the current series which is tied 1-1 at the moment. India won the second match at Lord’s by 151 runs, thanks to a superb comeback on the final day, but were hammered in the third match at Leeds which they lost by an innings and 76 runs.
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India made two changes in their playing XI for the Oval Test, dropping Ishant Sharma and Shami and replacing them with Umesh Yadav and Shardul Thakur, respectively. Thakur played the first Test but was replaced by Sharma in the second after suffering an injury. Kohli said before the match started that both the pace spearheads suffered niggles and hence were replaced.
Ravindra Jadeja, who got injured in the last game, was playing as the only spinner in the side.
England captain Joe Root won the toss and sent India to bat first and the tourists were in for early trouble, losing both their openers with only 28 on board. Cheteshwar Pujara was dismissed soon and Jadeja was promoted up the order to guard an out-of-form Ajinkya Rahane. India were 122 for 6 in the second session at the time of writing this report with wicket-keeper batsman Rishabh Pant and Shardul Thakur at the crease. Kohli was out for 50 off 96 balls.
For England, pacers Chris Woakes and Ollie Robinson took two wickets each while James Anderson took one.
