India vs West Indies: Rahane reveals why Ashwin not included in the squad

New Delhi : Indian cricket fans were left in shock when the skipper Virat Kohli announced that Ravichandran Ashwin will not be the part of playing squad in the first Test match against West Indies, instead his place has been filled with Ravindra Jadeja.

Speaking about it to the media, Ajinkya Rahane explained why the decision was made to drop out Ashwin. “It’s difficult when you miss a player like Ashwin but team management is always thinking as to what is the best combination. They thought Jadeja was a good option on this wicket as we needed a sixth batsman, who can actually bowl. Vihari can actually bowl on this track. So that was the communication between captain and coach,” the batsman said.

“It is hard to find players like Ashwin and Rohit (Sharma) sit out but’s all for the team,” Rahane he added.

Earlier, Sunil Gavaskar had expressed enmity over the decision saying that how can one keep a player off the field against a team he has performed extremely well. Ashwin has scored 552 runs with four hundreds and taken 60 wickets with four five-fors against the West Indies in 11 Tests (home and away).

“A man with that kind of record, especially against West Indies. He doesn’t find a place in this playing XI. That is stunning. Astonishing,” Gavaskar had said, hardly able to suppress his anger.