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With India losing the World Test Championship (WTC) final against Australia at The Oval in London, former India team selector Sarandeep Singh said that “there was something missing in the captaincy” and Ravichandran Ashwin should have been a part of the playing XI. Sarandeep Singh told ANI, “We can say that there was something lacking in the captaincy. We are used to Virat Kohli’s aggression. When the team is down, the captain lifts their morale, but Rohit Sharma is totally different.”
India lost the ICC World Test Championship title for the second time after reaching the final. Australia defeated India by 209 runs at The Oval on 11 June and created history by becoming the first team to win all major ICC trophies. The former Indian player also said that the selection of the playing XI was wrong.
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“It was not Rohit Sharma’s fault… We lost the WTC final, and everyone is upset. Firstly, our playing XI was wrong… Ravichandran Ashwin is such a great bowler and he can take wickets. They (Australia) Five were left-handers and the run-scorer, Travis Head, was also a left-handed batsman. So if Ashwin was there, maybe this story would not have happened.”
He also blamed the senior players for not stepping up in the big game. “The problem is with the senior players, when big matches come, like World Cup semi-finals 2019 or Asia Cup, our senior players don’t click together,” Sarandeep told ANI. “We should give good wickets to bat on in the home series so that our batsmen can bat longer. For a long time our batsmen have batted longer in Test cricket,” he added.
Singh disagreed with BCCI President Sourav Ganguly’s comment that “winning the IPL is more difficult than winning the World Cup”. “Ganguly speaking from his experience… We haven’t won any ICC trophy for many years. In IPL, you have lot of players from other countries and lot of matches but in ICC final you have only one chance Is.” Singh said.
Singh also said that Umran Malik should have been included in the team as he has a speed of over 150 mph. “Why didn’t we train our bench strength, we could have taken Ardeep Singh, we didn’t prepare Avesh Khan. We have Umran Malik, who bowls over 150, he should have been there, we His speed was needed.” Singh said.
