India vs England - "Can Always Look At Hindsight": Rahul Dravid Opens Up On Decision To Not Pick R Ashwin For Edgbaston Test

The Indian cricket team surrendered to a meek loss at the hands of England in the rescheduled 5th Test at Edgbaston on Tuesday, with the hosts chasing down a mammoth fourth innings target of 378 runs in around 2 sessions to inflict a demoralising and humiliating loss at the Indians. This is India's third straight loss in an away Test match in 2022 and signs are not great.

Indian bowlers struggled in the fourth innings on a track that had very little to offer. Joe Root and Jonny Bairstow made a mockery of India's third and fourth pacers Mohammed Siraj and Shardul Thakur.

Head coach Rahul Dravid was asked if India missed a trick by not including veteran spinner Ravichandran Ashwin in the post match press conference. Dravid said that when they looked at the pitch it had a lot of grass on it and hence they chose to go ahead with Shardul Thakur.

"I think you can always look at the hindsight, look at the combinations of your team. I think Shardul has done a good job for us in these games, it is not easy to leave someone like Ash (Ravichandran Ashwin) out in a Test match, but having said that, when we had looked at the pitch on the first day, it had a pretty even covering of grass, we felt there was enough in the wicket for the fast-bowlers," Dravid said.

He also added that the ball didn't really spin a lot on the wicket at Edgbaston and the lack of sun means the pitch didn't break up towards the last two days.

"Coming to the last day, the wicket has not really spun you know. Whether it was Jack Leach or Ravindra Jadeja who bowled in the Test match, if anything because maybe the weather played a part in the first three days, there weren't long phases of sun but the wicket did not break up as we might have expected it to. It did not spin as much as we expected, it is easy to look back at the fifth day and say it would have been nice to have another spinner, but it did not turn enough to justify that. I think we accept that they played really well, we could have just hit the areas better in the fourth innings," he added.

Topics mentioned in this article

Rahul Dravid Ravichandran Ashwin Shardul Thakur Mohammed Siraj India Cricket Team England Cricket Team England vs India, 2022 Cricket