WTC Final: 'For the team...:' India skipper Rohit Sharma on why Ravi Ashwin was dropped from XI

The World Test Championship (WTC) Final got underway between India and England at the Oval in London on Wednesday and India, not to much surprise, decided to go with Ravindra Jadeja as the only spinner in the squad.

Skipper Rohit Sharma, who decided to field first after winning the toss, was asked by Nasser Hussain how difficult it was to drop Ravi Ashwin from the squad. Notably, Ashwin is currently the number one bowler in the ICC Test ranking, with 869 points to his name.

“It's always tough. He's been a match-winner for us, over the course of many years. So, leaving him out was tough. But you got to do the things that are needed for the team. So, eventually we came up with that decision,” Rohit replied to Hussain's question.

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“The conditions and also the weather being overcast. The pitch won't change too much. Four seamers and one spinner. The spinner is Jadeja,” he further added.

Sharma had told the reporters on the eve of the Test that he, along with the team management, is going to wait till the toss and pick their best XI depending on the conditions prevalent at the time.

"Yeah, see, I've not said that Ashwin is not going to play. We'll wait until tomorrow - because one thing I have seen here - the pitch actually changes quite a bit from day to day. Today it's looking the way it is. Tomorrow it might be slightly different, who knows. So the message to the boys has been very clear, all 15 must be ready to play at any point in time. And we'll see the conditions tomorrow as well and make that decision as to who gets into that playing 11," Rohit said on Tuesday.

"I'll go and have a look at the pitch. But yeah, it looks a bit of help for the seamers definitely. With the overhead conditions as well, it's going to assist seamers a fair bit," the skipper added.

India's Playing XI included four seamers in Umesh Yadav, Mohammed Shami, Mohammed Siraj and Shardul Thakur alongside Ravindra Jadeja as the only spinner.

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