Former Indian captain believes this bowling duo has been severely undermined

The claim

On Friday, former legendary Indian captain and left-arm spinner, Bishan Singh Bedi revealed that in his opinion, R. Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja had not been given enough chances by the Indian team. The occasion was Bedi receiving the MA Chidambaram birth centenary award for his outstanding contribution to Indian cricket.

Jadeja returned to the Indian team after a long hiatus and played for the Asia Cup but Ashwin has not played white ball cricket since the West Indies tour in 2017.

Bedi said that it is good for a captain to have a preference, but he questioned captain Virat Kohli’s preference for rookies like Yuzvendra Chahal and Kuldeep Yadav over Ashwin and Jadeja. Though they have performed in South Africa and England, Bedi revealed why he thought the way he did.

Umesh Yadav ended with 6 for 88 against West Indies in 2nd test#umeshyadav #INDvsWI #cricket #powersportz pic.twitter.com/WXT3cnOuIS

— Power Sportz (@powersportz_tv) October 13, 2018

According to him, Chahal and Kuldeep are products of IPL and there is a stark difference between their game and the game of players like Ashwin and Jadeja. Bedi strongly feels that this duo has been severely undermined.

Also present at the function was GR Vishwanath, who clearly stated that Kohli had a long way to go before being hailed as a “great captain”. Vishwanath said that though the team under him, had come close to winning series abroad a couple of times, they had yet to do that. Kohli is still young and much more is expected of him.

Also read: Watch: Fan takes selfie with Kohli after breaching ground security 

More thoughts

Bedi spoke harshly while upholding Vishwanath’s views. He said that the media was behaving rather spinelessly. He was not in favor of Kohli silencing a reporter crudely. Bedi, without mincing his words said that a player must earn his respect and not command it.

.@windiescricket take three wickets in the second session against India, including the prized scalp of @imVkohli. @BCCI go into the tea break at 173/4. Will they manage to take a lead against the visitors? #INDvWI

Ball-by-ball scorecard: https://t.co/D4jQKBI8RL pic.twitter.com/R4YCqGkGoA

— Cricingif (@_cricingif) October 13, 2018

Regarding the upcoming Australia tour, Bedi said that the team should not make the same mistake they made in England, of not taking the warm-up matches seriously, which may have contributed to their thrashing loss.

The four-day warm-up game in Essex was curtailed to three days because of the heat. Bedi said harshly, this must be a joke and was not expected of India.