'I hope India don't regret this': Former Pakistan spinner says Kohli made a mistake by leaving out 'magician' Ashwin

The former Pakistan bowler feels that while the Indian pace attack bowled brilliantly on Day 2 of the Lord's Test, R Ashwin is a different bowler altogether.

Despite England ending the second day of the Lord's Test, India would believe they have the upper hand with a lead of 245 runs. Another encouraging sign for India is that barring Joe Root, the rest of the England batsmen have looked out of sorts, and if the first Test at Nottingham is any indication – where their fast bowlers picked up all 20 England wickets in the match – India would back themselves to attain a first-innings lead here as well.

Virat Kohli left R Ashwin out for the second Test in a row.  (Getty Image)

However, for that Indian pacers would need to bring out their best on Day 3, and with the pitch starting to turn, former Pakistan spinner Danish Kaneria feels R Ashwin could have proven to be a huge plus for India. Virat Kohli went into the second Test with four pacers and one spinner in Ravindra Jadeja, with the injured Shardul Thakur getting replaced by Ishant Sharma. Having said that, Kaneria expressed surprise over Ashwin's omission for a second consecutive Test and believes his bag of tricks could have made the off-spinner a real threat for England.

"I want to talk about the magician, Ashwin. How is he not playing? I’ve been saying this from day 1 that Ashwin needs to play at Lord’s. He should have played ahead of Shardul Thakur. He has variations, can bowl from different angles. He has the carrom balls, and the way the pitch is turning out to be – we saw this with Moeen Ali, we saw that with Ravindra Jadeja. Ashwin has a good height, gets good bounce and the slope would have helped him even further," Kaneria said on his YouTube channel.

Kaneria reckons that while the Indian pace attack has responded well to challenges and bowled brilliantly on the second day, with Mohammed Siraj and Mohammed Shami picking up three wickets between themselves, Ashwin is belongs a different class altogether.

"No doubt the Indian bowlers bowled well – Siraj and Shami – but they need wickets. England is trailing by 245 and on Sunday, the role of spinners will increase. Ravindra Jadeja can contain runs, but Ashwin – who has bowled well and picked wickets on all kinds of surfaces – not including Ashwin I feel is a mistake by India. I hope that after this Test match, India doesn’t regret not playing Ashwin," added Kaneria.