Having a veteran off-spinner like Ravichandran Ashwin speaks volumes of the strong bench strength that Indian possesses at the moment. Traditionally known for producing world-class spinners, India currently has one of the best, if not the best, fast-bowling attacks in the world. 

© Instagram/Indian Cricket Team

The conditions in England are conducive for fast-bowling but leaving someone of Ashwin’s calibre out is never a choice for any skipper and it always draws criticism from all quarters. The same thing happened when Ashwin was left on the sidelines for the second game running, when most experts expected him to replace Shardul Thakur in the Playing XI after he was ruled out due to a hamstring injury.

When the team was announced, Kohli’s team selection faced heavy scrutiny but as the game progressed people understood the logic behind it. Talking about his team selection, Kohli had said he was confident of his side’s batting unit and needed an extra pacer to put pressure on the English batsmen from both ends, throughout the game.

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As for Ashwin he was hopeful of starting the match but he would have started the game, if not for the rain. The team management had told the off-spinner that he might play the Lord’s Test because of the ‘heatwave’ but just before the match he was left heartbroken as London weather took a u-turn and it started to rain heavily.

“The funny thing was, before the match, they were like, ‘There’s a heatwave. You please be ready mate. You might play.’ Upon coming to breakfast in the morning, rain started lashing out. I asked, ‘Won’t you tell me about the heatwave after it came? Why give me hope only for it to end in disappointment!’,” Ashwin said on his YouTube channel. 

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Despite the rain on Day 1, the Lord’s pitch slowed down considerably as the match progressed and everyone thought India’s decision to pick four pacer would come back to haunt them. But Indian pacers bowled out of their skin despite not getting any help from the pitch and proved their skipper right by picking up all 20 wickets on a dead surface.

Mohammed Siraj was the pick of the bowlers for the visitors as he snapped eight wickets-- four each in both innings. Ishant Sharma, who was included in place of Thakur, also provided crucial breakthroughs and accounted for five dismissals.

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