Thread by @aumlaan_tweets

Just can't wrap my head around - still - the XI that @ImRo45 & #RahulDravid have gone with. How the hell did they leave out R Ashwin?
Btw, the bloke we are talking about is our most incisive Test bowler ever (if you look at wickets taken, bowling average & strike rate)
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..& arguably among the top 2 spinners of all time (only Murali has a better record than him in terms of bowling avg among all spinners who have played a minimum of 50 Tests & have taken a min. of 200 Test wickets), and Ashwin has a far better strike rate than Murali did.
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Among all spinners, only Jadeja has a comparable bowling avg., but then Ashwin has a far better strike rate.

Stats don't lie. Ashwin has been far & away our best bowler ever - not just our best spinner. Why then does the team mgmt regularly bench him? Had he been born in Eng
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or Aus, there is no doubt that the media would have offcially anointed him the GOAT. Only in India does an iconic payer like him struggle to make the Test XI overseas... little matter that Ashwin
a. Was the highest wicket-taker (across all teams) in the last WTC cycle.
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b. Was the most incisive bowler on view in the last WTC final which was played in Eng. Yes we played 3 seamers & 2 spinners against NZ's 5 seamers... but the small detail that is overlooked is that Ashwin was the best Indian bowler on view - we lost
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that final because our seamers flopped, not because we played 2 spinners.
c. Is the highest wicket taker & the best bowler by far for Team India in this WTC cycle too.
d. Was the Player of the Series (jointly with Jadeja) & the top wicket taker in the recently concluded
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home series against Aus.
e. Records of the bowlers in this XI:
Player, Wickets taken, S/R, Bowl Avg :
Umesh Yadav, 168, 52.0, 30.54
Shardul Thakur, 27, 41.0, 24.44
Mohammad Siraj, 47, 57.1, 31.29
Mohammed Shami, 225, 49.9, 27.48,
Ravindra Jadeja, 264, 59.5, 24.22
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The corresponding numbers for Ravichandran Ashwin: 474, 51.8, 23.93.
What do I seek by highlighting these stats? Simple. Ashwin has not been left out to include someone like a Bumrah or even a Shami. Thakur is too raw & new in his career to be compared. Leaving out Ashwin to
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include someone like an Umesh Yadav or even a Shardul Thakur makes zero sense. Why would you want to play quicks just because the pitch & the conditions are supposedly favouring them? Rigidity is inane & puerile.
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Is sticking to a formula more important or ensuring that the team you choose can pick up 20 wickets more important? Common sense says that to pick up 20 wickets you need 5 bowlers who are the likeliest to be most incisive. The think tank somehow felt that Umesh Yadav and
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Shardul Thakur had more chances of picking up wickets than the greatest bowler to have ever represented India in Tests. Stunning.. appalling and downright outrageous.
This leaves one only one possible conclusion. Excluding Ashwin from the Test XI at the slightest opportunity
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implies simply that the reasons for leaving him out whenever the team mgmt can, have little to do with cricket, whatever the team mgmt might profess. One hopes truth does out some day.

What a fricking shame.

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Completely fed up with Team India's selection blunders down the ages.. the saga just continues. I'm not following this WTC final - and @BCCI :too much of non-cricketing considerations interfering with team selections will turn people off cricket more & more. You guys need to
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@BCCI remember that it we the people who have made cricket as popular as it is. Do not forget that pls.
cc @bhogleharsha @venkateshprasad @sachin_rt @SGanguly99 @VVSLaxman281

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