WTC Final 2023: Veteran Indian wicket-keeper Dinesh Karthik has revealed his opinion on whether India should play two spin-bowling all-rounders, Ravichandran Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja. India had earlier announced their squad for the ICC World Test Championship against Australia, which will take place at the Oval from June 7 onward.
“I think it will be a very brave call to even play two (spinners) – Ashwin and Jadeja together. It might come down to a stage where, are they going to look at just the one spin option and an extra fast-bowling all-round option in Shardul Thakur or are they going to go with two spinners?,” said Karthik as quoted by ICC.
India successfully utilised three spinners in their playing XI during the recent Border-Gavaskar Test series on the sub-continent – with veteran Ravichandran Ashwin (25 wickets), star all-rounder Ravindra Jadeja (22) and emerging left-armer Axar Patel (three) combining to take 50 wickets and guide the side to a dominant 2-1 series triumph at home.
Karthik believes the decision to include both Ashwin and Jadeja in India’s XI for the 2021 World Test Championship final against New Zealand was an error and has urged selectors not to make the same mistake twice and play just one specialist spinner for the South London clash.
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“It will be an answer which will be easier said closer to the day of the match because the conditions will dictate whether they are going to go in with two spinners. I remember very vividly the last time they did feel that they had made an error by playing both the spinners in the Southampton Test match (2021 World Test Championship final) which did not probably aid spin much and both of them were under bowled.”
“It will be very interesting to see if India go down that route where they play both the spinners. The last time they played in England, they went for the fast-bowling all-rounder and just the one spinner, so they very much could go in with the same attack,” concluded Karthik.
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