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Sunil Gavaskar is not happy that Ravichandran Ashwin never got to lead India, even in a token Test or bilateral series.
R Ashwin announced his retirement from international cricket on December 18. (Picture Credit: AP)
Legendary former India Sunil Gavaskar has criticized the Indian team management for denying Ravichandran Ashwin ‘even the honor’ of vice-captaincy despite his apparent leadership skills. He said India could have given him the armband in a token Test or a bilateral series and not just the chance to lead the team out to the field in his 100th Test.
Ashwin retired last week on the final day of the Gabba Test of the 2024-25 Border-Gavaskar Trophy after featuring in 106 Tests, 116 ODIs and 65 T20Is for India. His 537 Test wickets are the second-highest for the country, only after Anil Kumble. Considered one of the smartest cricketing brains in the country, he never led the team and his captaincy experience throughout his international career was limited to just the IPL and domestic cricket.
“Ashwin would have made a fine captain for India, but he was denied even the honor of being the vice-captain. There was an opportunity to give him the belated honor even if it was for a token Test match and a limited-overs bilateral series, but that also was denied to him. That’s why it was so good to see Rohit Sharma ask him to lead the team out on his 100th Test match,” Gavaskar wrote in his column for Mid-Day.
Gavaskar was also critical of the Indian team management for not using Ashwin better in overseas Tests, saying they jumped on every ‘excuse of team balance’ to drop him.
“Cricket being a batters’ game, the fact that he invariably won the Player of the Series award didn’t win him kudos among the batters’ fraternity. Every time there was even a five percent excuse to leave him out of the eleven, it was grabbed avidly with the excuse of team balance.”
“At home, there was no way he could be left out because the management knew that without him, they could not win the game. If the excuse was that the pitch and conditions wouldn’t suit the ICC number one-ranked bowler, how come the same excuse was not used for the batters even if they were not top-ranked by ICC, but who struggled in similar pitches and conditions?”
Many observers believe that Washington Sundar being chosen over Ashwin for the first Test of the series in Perth pushed the spin legend into going ahead with his retirement.
