Aakash Chopra slams Indian management for dropping Avesh Khan to hand call-up to Akash Deep

Former Indian opener Aakash Chopra who has become one of the most renowned voices of Indian cricket, bashed the Indian team management for ignoring right-arm pacer Avesh Khan to include Bihar-born pacer Akash Deep who recently shined during India A’s unofficial Tests against England Lions in Ahmedabad.

Avesh Khan was among the Indian pacers alongside Jasprit Bumrah and Mohammed Siraj who were a part of the squad for the first two Tests against England in Hyderabad and Vishakhapatnam. While Bumrah retained his spot as the main pacer in the 2nd Test, Siraj was given a short break for the match that India won by 106 runs to level the series by 1-1 at the ACA-VDCA stadium.

Yesterday when the BCCI selection committee announced India’s squad for the final three Tests in Rajkot, Ranchi, and Dharamshala, the Ajit Agarkar-led panel excluded Avesh Khan and included Akash Deep in the squad. That triggered an aggressive reaction from Aakash Chopra who was absolutely surprised to see that happen.

Avesh was seen bowling in the net sessions at Vizag and was expected to play a part for India somewhere in the series as the team management had stated that no pacer would play all 5 Test matches before the start of the series.

“Another story is that Akash Deep has come. So the question is where did Avesh go because Avesh Khan was a part of this team. I saw him bowling with full effort in Vizag. Now suddenly he is not part of this Test team. So it is slightly surprising,” Aakash Chopra said in his latest YouTube video. 

“It Leaves A Sour Taste In The Mouth”, Aakash Chopra Bashes Rahul Dravid For Avesh Khan Omission

Aakash Chopra went on to claim that Avesh Khan hadn’t done anything wrong and didn’t deserve to be excluded from the squad for the last three Tests and stated that he should have been at least given a chance.

“If you drop someone who hasn’t done anything wrong, it leaves a sour taste in the mouth because you didn’t give him an opportunity. If you drop someone without giving him a chance, that may not be the right thing to do.” – Chopra concluded. 

From India’s perspective, Jasprit Bumrah turned the heat on out of nowhere in the 2nd Test when he registered man-of-the-match winning figures of 9/91 across innings whereas it is more prominent for the spinners to claim those figures in Indian conditions.

The likes of Ravichandran Ashwin, Kuldeep Yadav, and Axar Patel shared 9 wickets between them in the 2nd Test win while Bumrah and Mukesh Kumar shared 10 wickets between them. The pitch in Saurashtra is known for producing high-scoring matches and in those situations pacers get much more help than the spinners get.

The last time Rajkot hosted a Test match between India and England was during the 1st Test of a 5-match series back in 2016 which remained a draw. England had set up 537 in the 1st innings before India responded by scoring 488 runs in the 2nd innings.

After England declared 260, the Indians scored 172/6 in their attempt to chase down a total of 310.