R Ashwin has urged the Indian cricket supporters to stop being ‘hindsight kings’ and instead back the team if they are experimenting while looking at the larger picture.
Ashwin, who is vocal on many topical discussions in world cricket, has spoken about the impatience among India fans for demanding success in every series and also questioned whether the Indian management would be up for experimentation when the national team is undergoing a transition.
India recently lost the second ODI against West Indies, before going on to clinch the series 2-1. Skipper Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli had limited game time during the three games as the side decided to push youngsters and fringe players ahead of them instead, as the final lap of preparations for the World Cup begins.
India won the first and third ODIs comfortably, but a lapse in the second game against a team that failed to qualify for the World Cup was met with criticism on social media. Ashwin has hit out at the supporters by saying that the management is trying out different players at different roles to avoid the humiliation of the 2022 T20 World Cup.
Despite qualifying for the semifinal of the event last year, India were far from their best throughout the league stage with a number of last-minute injuries leading to an unsettled squad.
Speaking on his YouTube channel, Ashwin said, “When you play two ODIs in a gap of 24 hours, there are more chances of you getting injured. Already we have so many players recovering in the NCA…It looks like people are just finding points just for the sake of it to blame Rahul Dravid [head coach] and Rohit Sharma.
“They are trying different players now because they know what they went through during the last T20 World Cup. We didn’t have Ravindra Jadeja, Jasprit Bumrah and a few fast bowlers available. So that’s why they are trying different options before the 50-over World Cup. We don’t know what the team management is thinking, therefore, we can’t just criticise that their thought process is wrong.”
He requested the fans to stop looking at results with the benefit of hindsight and instead send the team into the World Cup with positivity. “All of us are hindsight kings. If we lose a match, we ‘will immediately go, ‘If we had played this player, we would have won the game.’ It’s not that easy. The hindsight operations won’t work here.”
He also hinted that India would not be able to adopt the ‘Bazball’ style of aggressive batting in Test cricket unless the entire ecosystem, consisting of the management, the selectors and the fans are behind the team to play fearlessly.
“We will go through a transition in Test cricket soon. And things won’t be easy during that phase. There will be a few issues here and there. But let’s assume India adopts Bazball during this phase. Let us assume a player throws his bat at everything like Harry Brook and gets out and we lose two Test matches. What will we do? Will we back Bazball and the players?” the off-spinner asked.
He then said, “We will drop at least four players from our playing XI. That’s how our culture has always been. We can’t copy others’ style of play just because it worked for them. It works for them because their management is fully in with this style of play, their selectors back the players to play this way. In fact, even their crowd and Test match-watching public are backing the team in this process. But we can’t do this.”
