‘Problem lies in…’: Ex-India selector decodes what went wrong for Team India at beginning of WTC Final

Following India’s loss to Australia in the World Test Championship (WTC) final at The Oval in London, former India team selector Sarandeep Singh has expressed his opinion that there were some shortcomings in the team’s captaincy and that Ravichandran Ashwin should have been included in the playing XI. 

This marks India’s second loss in the ICC World Test Championship title after reaching the finals. On June 11, Australia made history by becoming the first-ever team to clinch all major ICC trophies, defeating India by 209 runs at The Oval.

“We can say that there was some slack in captaincy. We have the habit of Virat Kohli’s aggression. When the team is down, the captain boosts their morale but Rohit Sharma is completely different,” Sarandeep Singh told to ANI.

The former Indian player expressed his opinion that the selection of the playing XI was incorrect.

“It was not Rohit Sharma’s mistake…we lost the WTC final, and all are upset. Firstly, our playing XI was wrong…..Ravichandran Ashwin is such a great bowler and he can take wickets. They (Australia) had five left-handers and Travis Head, who scored runs, was also a left-hander. So if Ashwin was there then possibly this was not have been the story,” he added.

He also blamed the senior players for not stepping up in a big game.

“The problem lies in senior players, when big matches come, like the World Cup semi-final 2019 or Asia Cup, our senior players do not click together,” Sarandeep told to ANI.

“We should give good batting wickets in the home series so that our batter can bat longer. It has been a long time since our batters have batted long in Test cricket,” he added.

Singh stated that Umran Malik ought to have been included in the squad due to his impressive speed of over 150 mph.

“Why we did not train our bench strength, we could have taken Arsdeep Singh, we did not prepare Avesh Khan. We have Umran Malik, who bowls at a speed more than 150, he should have been there, we needed his pace,” Singh said.

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