If Kohli can be picked up, why not Ashwin?

Deserting a team in the middle of a cricket series is not com-mon. Yes, Navjot Singh Siddhu and MS Dhoni had done it in different styles to different reactions and impact. And now Ravi-chandran Ashwin, usually a highly disciplined cricketer with a keen understanding of the game's culture and ethos has caught everyone off guard by opting out. He certainly could not have been told before the start of the tour that he would be the pri-mary spinner in the team. And when there are two other spin-ners around to compete with in Aussie conditions, he definitely would have known the score. Thus, it's difficult to buy the ar-gument that he quit the team simply because he wasn't chosen in the playing eleven. The omission from the playing eleven might have been the trigger but there would be another pur-pose for sure. Who will open the Pandora's box for the plain truth?

–Jayanthi S Mani, Mumbai

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Aswin is a great player. He was part of our team which won the world cup in 2011 and the Champions trophy in 2013. He is one of the celebrated spinners after Bedi, Prasanna, Chandrasekar and Venkatraghavan. He leaves behind an extraordinary legacy. With 537 wickets in 106 tests, he is ranked as a fourth highest wicket taking spinner. His 37 five wicket hauls deserves men-tion. His exit seems to be out of frustration. He is a better play-er and can perform well. So Ashwin should reconsider his deci-sion in the best interest of cricket.

–Sravana Ramachandran, Chennai

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Ashwin’s announcement actually makes a mockery of Indian cricket. It is tragic that someone of his calibre was struggling to get selected while Kohli kept getting picked without any scruti-ny. For all those who want to understand how the utter non-sense that has gone on around Kohli affects a team, they can just look at this instance.

In the same five years where specialist batsman Kohli averaged 32, Ashwin averaged 21.09 with the bat and 20.89 with the ball. A bowling all-rounder who consistently kept his batting average higher than his bowling average (or very close) – to do that over 106 Tests in a career spanning 14 year – makes him an all-time-great of the game. But it was Ashwin who was dropped overseas, even in England where he averaged 28 with the ball. So why would he not get picked in June 2025 for the English tour? Jadeja averages 43.5 with the ball in England against Kumble’s 41. And the great troika? Bedi has 38, Chandrasekhar 34, Prasanna 58. Not even once has anyone considered drop-ping Kohli in any conditions (but he, as captain, had no problem dropping Ashwin in England, without any repercussions to his glorious career). Ashwin is not just India's greatest match-winner, he is the world's greatest Test series winner in history. He was Man of the Match 37 times and Man of the series 11 times.

–C K Subramaniam, Mumbai