'Different rules for different people' - Sunil Gavaskar fumes over India's decision to drop R Ashwin from WTC 2023 final

India suffered an embarrassing 209-run loss last week against Australia in the World Test Championship (WTC) 2023 final at the Oval. Many fans and cricket experts criticised the Indian team a lot. However, some fans said that the exclusion of the no. 1 Test bowler Ravichandran Ashwin was the main reason behind India’s loss.

Meanwhile, former legendary Indian cricketer Sunil Gavaskar also talked about the same and said that when a bowler doesn’t perform in some games, they get dropped and this doesn’t apply to the batters. Indian bowlers weren’t much effective in the WTC final due to which India couldn’t win the match.

“For far too long Ashwin has suffered not for his bowling ability of which only the churlish will have doubts, but for his forthrightness and speaking his mind at meetings where most others just nod even if they don’t agree. If Ashwin doesn’t take heaps of wickets in one game, he is invariably sidelined for the next one. That does not happen to established batters though. That’s Indian cricket. Different rules for different people. If you don’t believe me ask Ravi Ashwin and T. Natarajan.” Gavaskar was quoted as saying by Hindustan Times.

That is why I started bowling off-spin: R Ashwin

Meanwhile, Ashwin recently revealed that he initially wanted to be a batter but ended up being an off-spinner. He gave an example of former legendary Indian batter Sachin Tendulkar and said that Sachin used to be his favorite batter but the way he used to thrash the bowler inspired him to be a bowler in the future as he wanted to become a better bowler than Sachin’s generation.

"This is a true story and I don’t talk from something made up. One day, I was seeing the India-Sri Lanka game and India’s bowling was in tatters. My favorite was Sachin Tendulkar, and whatever runs he used to make, we used to leak those runs with the ball. I used to think - one day, I must be a bowler. Can’t I be better than the bowlers that are there currently? This is a very childish way to think but that is how I thought and that is why I started bowling off-spin. This is where it began," Ashwin was quoted as saying by Hindustan Times.