‘What Was The Need’: Ravi Shastri Lambasts India After Ordinary Bowling In Boxing Day Test

Earlier, Australia restarted their innings at 311/6 with the duo of Steve Smith and Pat Cummins adding 112 runs for the seventh wicket. Australian skipper was snared on 49 but then Smith went on to complete his 34th Test century. Shastri specifically questioned the selection of two spinners that the India team decided to play in the form of Ravindra Jadeja and Washington Sundar.

“I thought the bowling was pretty ordinary. They ran out of ideas, India. Spin wasn’t used as much as it should have. It took a gap of 40 overs before Jadeja was introduced into the attack. It took a long time for Washington Sundar to bowl his first over. So when you’re playing two spinners, you have to ask the question, why did you play two spinners? What was the need if you don’t trust them?”, Shastri said on Star Sports.

“I think India ran out of ideas. There’s absolutely no doubt about that. Because what Australia did was, there would have been a game plan. Let’s make sure we don’t lose too many wickets in that first 45 minutes. Try and get another 50 runs on the board. They were 311 for 6. Their first aim would have been 350. But the rate at which they scored the runs made the job far easier,” Shastri added.

Australia Squad: Pat Cummins (C), Alex Carey (WK), Usman Khawaja, Nathan McSweeney, Marnus Labuschagne, Steven Smith, Travis Head, Mitchell Marsh, Mitchell Starc, Nathan Lyon, Josh Hazlewood, Josh Inglis, Scott Boland.

India Squad: Rohit Sharma (C), Yashasvi Jaiswal, KL Rahul, Devdutt Padikkal, Virat Kohli, Rishabh Pant(w), Dhruv Jurel, Nitish Reddy, Ravichandran Ashwin, Akash Deep, Jasprit Bumrah(vc), Mohammed Siraj, Sarfaraz Khan, Prasidh Krishna, Ravindra Jadeja, Harshit Rana, Washington Sundar, Abhimanyu Easwaran.