Does leaving Ashwin out make cricketing sense?

 

For the fourth time in four Tests on this England tour, India's highest wicket-taker in the squad and a man with a cracking record against Joe Root, finds himself out of the playing XI.

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One way or the other, Virat Kohli and Ravi Shastri can’t be questioned on being firm in their decision making. Overlooking historical data of The Oval being the most spin friendly of all English Test venues and shutting out media talk—what they term “outside noise”—India went ahead and kept their premier spinner Ravichandran Ashwin on the bench for the 4th Test running in the series.

When India drafted their seventh seamer, Prasidh Krishna, in the playing squad as an injury cover, it was an indicator that Kohli was committed to retaining his four fast bowlers template in England. On Day 1, the wicket had grass—evidently the home team would have wanted to minimize the Ashwin threat. The pitch didn’t resemble the surface on which Ashwin had picked seven wickets for Surrey before the series. And England seamers did run through the Indian batting with spongy bounce and good movement on the day. But it’s still a inexplicable (or brave, depending on your point of view) call from India to ignore the damage Ashwin could inflict in a two-innings contest. As recently as June, on a more seam friendly surface, Ashwin had put up a solid show in the World Test Championship final.