Ravichandran Ashwin should have played ahead of Shardul Thakur, says Danish Kaneria

Former Pakistan spinner Danish Kaneria believes that sitting Ashwin out for the second Test against England at Lord's was a poor decision by Team India.

He felt that Ashwin would have given the Men in Blue an advantage heading into the match. Skipper Virat went ahead with four pacers and a spinner for the second Test. He replaced injured Shardul Thakur with Ishant Sharma, instead of Ravichandran Ashwin.

"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.

"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.

Ishant Sharma played a crucial role for Team India on Day 3 as the veteran pacer scalped three crucial wickets to limit England's lead over India to just 27 runs.