Ravichandran Ashwin has revealed the reason behind his last-minute exclusion from the playing XI for the Lord’s Test on his YouTube channel.

In his YouTube show, ‘Kutti Story’, Ashwin, in conversation with India’s fielding coach R Sridhar, revealed that he was due to play the second Test between India and England at Lord’s until the morning of the game.

The off-spinner wasn’t part of the XI for the first Test at Trent Bridge in Nottingham with India playing four quicks and Ravindra Jadeja the all-rounder in seaming conditions. It was expected that the off-spinner could come into contention for one of the quicks at Lord’s, and Ashwin asserted the same in the show, explaining that his exclusion was a move made on the morning of the Test.

“The funny thing was, before the match, they were like, ‘There’s a heatwave. You please be ready, mate. You might play.’ Upon coming to breakfast in the morning, rains started lashing out. I asked, ‘Won’t you tell about heatwave after it came? Why gave me hope only for it to end in disappointment!’,” Ashwin exclaimed.

Kohli explained along similar lines at the toss in the second Test when asked about Ashwin’s exclusion after he was named in the 12-man team. “We announced 12 within the group and Ashwin definitely was part of that. But after looking at the pitch, the conditions, and considering how a fourth seamer can be an attacking option, this makes the most sense for us as a team,” Kohli said.

The off-spinner is a significantly improved bowler in overseas conditions as his stats show, but the team combination and the less-than-ideal batting capabilities of the tail have kept the Tamil Nadu spinner out of the XI, a decision that has received backlash on social media platforms.

Spinners haven’t had a major role to play in the series so far with India’s quicks taking 39 of the 40 England wickets (the one other being a run out) in the series. Moeen Ali, with three wickets at Lord’s, is the only spinner on the wickets chart so far.

India’s four-seamer ploy has reaped success so far with the visitors winning the Lord’s Test and their surge to a win at Trent Bridge halted by rain.