'Jab chidiya chug gayi khet' - Twitter reacts after Sunil Gavaskar lambasts Ravichandran Ashwin's exclusion from India's playing-XI for WTC final

India were embarrassingly outclassed in the WTC 2023 final by the hands of Australia. The Rohit Sharma-led side lost the match by a huge 209 runs due to a huge batting failure in both innings. All of India's veterans, namely Cheteshwar Pujara, Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli and others failed to match the batting prowess of Steve Smith and Travis Head.

That proved to be the difference between the two teams, which amounted to India's second WTC final loss in as many finals. The signs of defeat however could be seen even before the first ball was bowled. In what came as a huge surprise to many cricket fans and pundits, number 1 Test bowler Ravichandran Ashwin was excluded from India's final playing XI for the WTC final.

Captain Sharma cited pace-friendly pitch condition to be the reason for Ashwin's exclusion. Shardul Thakur, instead was picked in the final playing-XI. The pitch however did not remain that way and did not give much assistance to the pacers as earlier thought it would.

Soon it became apparent that India should have picked the World's number 1 bowler in such an important match. Soon pundits from both sides, India and Australia started speaking of poor team selection by Rahul Dravid and Rohit Sharma.

Here's how Twitter reacted to Sunil Gavaskar's comments on Ravi Ashwin's exclusion from India's playing XI for the WTC final: 

Just look at the stats...DAMN!

— Soumya (@notionhead) June 13, 2023

ye sab abhi tak kaha baate kar rahe hai?

— Tweeting Quarantino (@rohitadhikari92) June 13, 2023

I've never seen Sunil Gavaskar so frustrated till this date!!! He probably knew just like many others this was a golden opportunity for India to beat Australia having got the mental edge over them the past few years! That first day performance always put them on the backfoot

— Troll cricket unlimitedd (@TUnlimitedd) June 13, 2023

Josh Hazlewood regularly got benched in Asian Tours



Neil Wagner/ Boult got benched in Asian Tours



Broad gets benched frequently in Asian Tours



So it's not something new that Top ranked bowlers getting benched in their unfavorable conditions..

— ❤️ (@82goatKnock) June 13, 2023

The entire team was so Unprepared Ashwin or even probably Pant wouldn't have done anything.

— piyush sharma (@writerpiyush1) June 13, 2023

Why dint u ask the same question during 2021 England series?? Just because we lost all these statements come?. Btw his replacement shardul thakur contributed better than many other players in Indian team

— Bhuvantej R (@BhuvantejR) June 13, 2023

The game is over. Learn from it and focus on the next game.

— 𝘼𝙠𝙝𝙞𝙡𝙚𝙨𝙝 (@AkhileshTekade) June 13, 2023

We need to address the batting failures. It's never been strong in the last 2 cycles. Time and again it's failed. I haven't seen Indian batting fight in the 4th innings of any test match. It's always a given they will lose.

— Sahil C. (@JaySapp12) June 13, 2023

India's loss accredited to poor scheduling

After the loss, Sharma and Rahul Dravid spoke of a jam-packed schedule for the loss. Sharma said that IPL did not leave any time for proper preparations which in turn proved the difference between the both sides. Team India's head coach also said that had they been in England for 3-4 weeks, they would have been benefitted from 2 warm-up matches and could have been fairly acclimatised to the conditions.

All of these however sound like excuses to an average cricket fan and many have claimed the same on social media. Fans have argued that an issue like this should have been discussed with the Indian Cricket Board before the match and not like this in public after the team has suffered an embarrassing loss.