The exclusion of premier off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin from the India team for the World Test Championship final against Australia has drawn analysis from Australian cricket legends Matthew Hayden and Ricky Ponting.

Ashwin, India’s leading wicket-taker in the 2021-23 WTC cycle and currently the top-ranked Test bowler, was left out as the team led by Rohit Sharma chose to field four seamers to improve their pace attack.

Hayden and Ponting voiced their disapproval of India’s decision, pointing to the questionable move of not having Ashwin.

“I feel that Ravichandran Ashwin  is such a key factor, the leading wicket taker in the Tests cycle is not there. There are a few factors worth pondering on in Team India’s perspective,”

Hayden told ICC after the day one’s proceedings. 

Left-arm spinner Ravindra Jadeja is the only spinner in the playing XI without Ashwin. He took no wickets as India struggled to break the 251-run partnership between Steve Smith and Travis Head (146 batting).

With 327/3 on the board, Australia won day one with Head’s blistering century, his first in England, and Smith’s determined performance.

World Cup-winning skipper Ponting called Ashwin’s rejection a “mistake”

“So far for me, it looks like it was a mistake from them by playing the four seamers, but we will see how the game pans out,” Ponting told the ICC.

“As this game goes on, I have got no doubt that there is going to be a turn. Australia have got a lot of left-handers in their batting line-up to which Ashwin would have been perfectly suited for,”

he said, as Ashwin is the most successful bowler in Tests against left-handers.

After winning the toss, there was also discussion regarding Rohit’s “bowl-first” decision, and Hayden suggested that the Indian captain might have “missed a trick.”

“I feel they may have missed a trick at the toss. Even if Pat Cummins said he would have liked to bowl, I secretly think Australia always likes to bat first in Tests. I feel like Rohit Sharma was caught thinking that we’re going to play the day rather than playing the Test match.”

he further added.

Head was the aggressive player on day one, scoring 146 runs in just 156 deliveries as he attacked the Indian attack as the wicket got easier.

Hayden and Ponting contrasted Head likewise with the partner and unbelievable wicketkeeper hitter Adam Gilchrist after he swung the force in support of Australia in ‘A definitive Test’.

“It was a classical Travis Head attacking style. One of the things in this Championship cycle is that Head not only scored over 1000 runs but he did at a strike rate of 80-plus,”

Hayden said 

“That’s really hard to do when you are playing a tournament of such pressure, and also you are under enormous pressure because of the atmospheric conditions. But he finds a way to get this terrific strike rate. He is almost like Adam Gilchrist was in his day, somehow able to put so much pressure on opposition simply because they do not know where to bowl,”

Hayden added.

During his illustrious Test career, Gilchrist had a strike rate of 81.95, and Head is moving in the same direction, scoring at a similar rate during Australia’s World Test Championship.

“He probably is (similar to Gilchrist). In fact he is probably scoring quicker now than Gilly probably ever did,”  

“His strike-rate through this (World Test Championship) qualification period is 81, which is higher than anyone else in the world to have scored more than 500 runs.”

Ponting said.

SHAMI AND CO ERRED IN THEIR LENGTH 

Ponting further said India’s pacers erred with their length early against Head.

“I think when he first comes in you need to execute perfectly to him. It is no good trying to over attack him because if you bowl any bad ball, he is going to put it away. They will learn by the way they bowled to him in this first innings, and they will definitely adjust in this second innings, but sometimes it is too late.” 

Ponting noted.