IND vs WI: "People Are Finding Points To Blame, Rohit Sharma Rahul Dravid" - Ravichandran Ashwin

Veteran spinner Ravichandran Ashwin has backed his coach and captain – Rahul Dravid and Rohit Sharma – for their experimentation phase in the ODI series against West Indies. India won the series 2-1 with Rohit and Kohli not playing the last two games.

Their absence from the Indian playing XIs in the final two ODIs irked the Indian fans who felt that the experienced players should play all the international games in the build-up to the World Cup.

The absence of Rohit and Kohli was badly felt in the second ODI as the Indian batting lineup was bowled out for just 181. They made up for it in the third ODI smashing 351/5 batting first.

Defending the decision to rest Rohit and Kohli, Ashwin tried explaining the bigger picture of the decision to the Indian fans on his Youtube channel.

“India lost the second ODI and immediately the trend in social media was – why so-and-so players played and why so-and-so players did not play. I seriously don’t understand why this outrage. Rohit and Virat didn’t play in the second ODI. Even in the first match, Rohit batted lower down the order. So the debate was around whether Rohit and Virat should have played,” he said on his YouTube channel.

People Think India’s job In International Cricket Is To Win World Cup: Ravichandran Ashwin

He further tried the Indian fans explaining as to why the team is considered as the tournament favorites and that there is a bigger picture to the management’s decision to try out new players.

“Some of them were perplexed at how we lost to a team that didn’t even qualify for the World Cup. Many people think that India’s only job in international cricket is to win World Cup. The main reason why we consider ourselves favorites to win the World Cup is because of the IPL,” the 36-year-old went on to add.

Ashwin also explained the logic to the rest senior players as India played the first and the second ODI in a space of 24 hours. He said that the senior players were rested to avoid injury concerns with India already missing a lot of players due to injury.

“ODI matches are very stressful. It will take at least two days for your body to recover. The first two matches in West Indies were played in a gap of 24 hours. Thus, there are more chances of you getting injured. “Already we have so many players recovering at the NCA. Bumrah is back after a long hiatus. Prasidh Krishna is back too. So, we have so many injury problems. It seems like people are finding points to blame Rahul Dravid and Rohit Sharma just for the sake of it,” Ashwin concluded saying.

India will now face West Indies in a five-match T20I series after winning the Test and the ODI series.