As India excluded Ravichandran Ashwin from the squad despite his vast experience and his performance against Australia, Member of Parliament for Thiruvananthapuram — Shashi Tharoor — looks baffled.

As per ICC stats, R Ashwin is ranked number 1 as a Test bowler and the second-ranked Test all-rounder, who has 474 Test wickets in his name. He has 869 points as a bowler in the test category, while scores 359 points in the all-rounder category. Despite this, dropping Ashwin he was not included in the squad and has left Tharoor ‘baffled, dismayed and bewildered’.

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Expressing his displeasure on Twitter over the decision, Tharoor wrote, “Australia has recovered well from the early loss of a wicket in the Oval #WTC2023Final. Now I’d normally expect @ashwinravi99 to bowl a couple of overs before lunch. But incredibly enough, India has left the #1 ranked bowler in the world out of their team in the most spinner-friendly ground in England, against his favorite opponents, who are playing four left-handers in their top seven! Baffled, dismayed & bewildered.”

Meanwhile, Indian skipper had won the toss and elected to bowl first. By the the report was filed, Australia scored 327 runs after losing 3 wickets in 85 overs. Australia’s Travis Head scored a century and was playing at 146 runs, while Steven Smith was playing at 95 runs.

For India, Shardul Thakur, Mohammed Shami and Mohammed Siraj picked one wicket each.

Here’s playing XI’s of both teams:

Australia (Playing XI): David Warner, Usman Khawaja, Marnus Labuschagne, Steven Smith, Travis Head, Cameron Green, Alex Carey(w), Pat Cummins(c), Mitchell Starc, Nathan Lyon, Scott Boland

India (Playing XI): Rohit Sharma(c), Shubman Gill, Cheteshwar Pujara, Virat Kohli, Ajinkya Rahane, Srikar Bharat(w), Ravindra Jadeja, Shardul Thakur, Umesh Yadav, Mohammed Shami, Mohammed Siraj

Updated: 07 Jun 2023, 10:40 PM IST