Notably, this was the third different spinner employed by the Indian management in as many matches.
The Indian team made two changes for the third Border Gavaskar Trophy (BGT) Test match at The Gabba, which started earlier today. Coming on the back of a 10-wicket defeat in Adelaide, the Indian think tank decided to drop Ravichandran Ashwin and Harshit Rana, while naming their respective replacements in Ravindra Jadeja and Akash Deep.
However, the decision to include Ravindra Jadeja did not go down well with former India star Dinesh Karthik. Notably, this was the third different spinner employed by the Indian management in as many matches.
While Washington Sundar played the series opener in Perth, Ashwin featured in Adelaide and now Jadeja has been included in the playing XI for the ongoing game at The Gabba.
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Dinesh Karthik labels decision to include Ravindra Jadeja ‘defensive’
Echoing on the same lines, Kathik slammed the decision taken by the coach-captain pair of Gautam Gambhir and Rohit Sharma and labelled it as ‘defensive’.
Speaking on Cricbuzz show Chatter, the veteran wicketkeeper-batter said,
“I have to say (Gautam) Gambhir) and Rohit (Sharma) have gone towards an option that provides more batting. In the bowling, they have realized that the all three (two) spinners haven’t had that much of an impact.
“So, they probably fear that, you know, let’s try and get the best batter out of the three and this is what their thinking could be. It doesn’t sit well with me. I feel it’s slightly a defensive option but I understand where they are coming from,” he concluded.
Speaking about the series, it is currently evenly poised at 1-1. After creating history at Brisbane on their last tour in 2020-21, India will be hoping to do an encore and take a much-needed lead and shift the momentum back on their side.
Day 1 of the third Test was however washed out due to poor weather with only 13.2 overs bowled and Australia scoreboard reading 28 for no loss.
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