Ashwin had no problems with him being dropped, says Virat Kohli

Ravichandran Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja were arguably India’s best bowlers in the long Test home season against the likes of Australia, New Zealand and England. Post the long and stressful home season, the off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin was ruled out of the Indian Premier League with a hernia.

The problems that India have had in the Champions Trophy is plenty, with all the players in prime form. The management had to drop the in-form off-spinner for the all-rounder Hardik Pandya. In the shed, are Ajinkya Rahane, Mohammed Shami and Dinesh Karthik who are all waiting for the opportunity to jump straight into the Indian playing XI.

Even without playing the off-spinner, India managed to get a comprehensive win past rivals Pakistan in their opening Group B fixture at Edgbaston on Sunday. While most complimented Virat Kohli for picking the best team, there were people who wondered how a champion performer like Ashwin could be left out.

Ahead of Team India’s encounter against Sri Lanka on Thursday, a question on the off-spinner was bound to come up in front of Kohli. The skipper also praised how the others handled being benched, despite their performance in the warm-up games.

The Indian skipper was asked how the management had dealt with an ego of a big player such as the offie, to which he replied “Ashwin is a high-class bowler, everyone knows that, he’s very professional as well. He understood the dynamic of the side we picked in the last game. He was absolutely fine with it.”

“Yes, we do have disagreements on bowling plans and all those sort of things because he’s a smart guy and he has his own plans in place. But in this case, where team selection and all these things come into play he’s very professional, he understands what the team demands. That’s a very nice and beautiful thing about him that he always puts the team first.” added the Indian skipper.

Kohli then revealed what the off-spinner told him after the decision was made for the game against Pakistan, “He was the first guy who told me that I have no problems with the kind of combinations you’re going in with. He told me I support you in whatever you want to do. That’s always the kind of equation we’ve had.”

Later, Kohli went on to explain the reason behind dropping the pacer Shami in the XI, “Shami hasn’t played 50-over cricket for a long time. I’m glad he bowled really well in the first few practice games, but I felt that Umesh, Bhuvi, and Bumrah had much more match practice and the performances to back that up in the last few series we played. A bowler like Shami will always be in your setup because we know about his abilities, and he’s the sort of guy that can win you games in any form of cricket.”

However, Kohli is happy with the bench strength, “Yeah, he’s feeling his way back into the groove, and he’s certainly an asset. If, God forbid, something happens to someone, then we already have another guy who’s ready to strike and has proven himself. This just shows our bench strength,” said Kohli.

Here’s the video of Virat Kohli addressing the media: