'I fail to understand...': Sachin Tendulkar's rare Ashwin outburst after India's crushing defeat in WTC final

Even the great Sachin Tendulkar was perplexed to see R Ashwin being left out of Playing XI after India suffered a 2-9-run defeat to Australia in the WTC final.

Sachin Tendulkar is someone who usually remains unrattled in even the most unpleasant scenarios. Even when he was hit by the infamous ball tampering allegations, along with many more controversies, Tendulkar remained calm and dealt with the controversy with levelheadedness. People talk of MS Dhoni all the time, but the manner in which Tendulkar played his cricket during his 25-year-long career, not letting anger get in the way or cloud his judgment, the man deserves a lot more credit than just his batting. For Tendulkar, losing his temper was as rare as a India winning matches overseas back in the day, and that speaks volumes of his tremendous temperament.

Sachin Tendulkar does not know what to make to R Ashwin's omission. (Getty/PTI)

So whenever Tendulkar says something hard, you are ought to play attention, like he did after India were crushed by Australia by 209 runs on Day 5 of the World Test Championship final at The Oval. As has been the case on numerous previous occasions, the Indian batting capitulated when it was needed the most. For the umpteenth time, the start-studded batting order let them down in an ICC knockout. Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma, Cheteshwar Pujara and Ajinkya Rahane – the famous quartet of Indian Test batting appeared a poor shadow of themselves. Sounds, familiar right?

But while many believe that the batting collapse is what lost India the match, thing again. Was it? Or was the game lost on the first day itself when India omitted the No. 1 ranked Test bowler in the world Ravichandran Ashwin from their Playing XI. For two hours of overcast conditions, Ashwin was deemed unsuitable to play, a decision that was met with vast criticism around the world, including the great Tendulkar, who has vouched his support towards India's most successful off-spinners in Tests.

"Congratulations to Team Australia on winning the #WTCFinal. @stevesmith49 and @travishead34 set a solid foundation on Day one itself to tilt the game in their favour," Tendulkar tweeted. “There were some good moments for Team India, but I fail to understand the exclusion of @ashwinravi99 in the playing XI, who is currently the number one Test bowler in the world.”

Ahead of the WTC final, Tendulkar had stated how the Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja combination could have done wonders for India. Tendulkar, who insisted that the nature of the Oval surface would assist spin as the match went on, foresaw something the Indian team management including coach Rahul Dravid and captain Rohit Sharma could not. The great man also reiterated Ashwin's dominance against the left-handers, which again neither Rohit not Dravid felt was good enough to grant him a place in the XI.

"Like I had mentioned before the match, skilful spinners don’t always rely on turning tracks, they use drift in the air and bounce off the surface to disguise their variations. Not to forget, Australia had 5 left-handers out of their top 8 batters," he added.