Former India captain Sourav Ganguly is convinced that seasoned spinner Ravichandran Ashwin “must play” in the Border Gavaskar Trophy series opener against Australia in Perth. After months of wait, India and Australia, two heavyweights in the world of Test cricket, will begin their fierce rivalry in Perth from Friday. With last-minute injuries and the dwindling form of players in the Indian camp, the selection will be a headache for head coach Gautam Gambhir, especially after suffering a home series whitewash against New Zealand.

Ashwin, who has been a reason for debate among former cricketers and fans for being sidelined in defining matches, including the World Test Champions finals in 2023, is again the talk of the town.

With a traditional Perth surface offering plenty of value to pacers, spinners have struggled to fish out advantages while hunting for wickets.

In the presence of Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja and Washington Sundar, the most probable scenario would be India fielding just one tweaker in the playing XI.

On the back of his lacklustre outing in the recent Tests, Ashwin could be on the verge of missing out on another big overseas match.

However, for the former BCCI president, there is no debate about Ashwin’s selection. For him, the 38-year-old stands as the clear favourite ahead of Jadeja and Sundar, who impressed during the New Zealand series defeat.

“There is no debate. Ashwin must play. Your best spinner must play. In Test cricket, play specialists. Also, against the number of left-handers in the Australian line-up, Ashwin is certain to have an impact,” Ganguly said while speaking to Boria Majumdar on Revsportz.

Ashwin had a rare slump on home conditions in red-ball cricket against the Kiwis. The crafty off-spinner’s fruitless endeavour was reflected in his failure to hit the double-digit mark in the wicket’s tally across the three Tests.

While Sundar and Jadeja stood at the summit with 16 wickets a piece, Ashwin could only get nine for himself. Another striking factor in Ashwin’s performance was his failure to churn out wickets in the first and the third Tests.

On two occasions, he went wicketless, including the second innings of the series opener and the first innings of the final Test at Wankhede.

Despite his woes, Ganguly banked on Ashwin to make it into the playing XI because the veteran stands as India’s “best spinner.”

“Yes, there is [Ravindra] Jadeja and Washington [Sundar] and both bat well, but you must go in with your best spinner in the first Test. Play with specialist batsmen and bowlers, and that’s where Ashwin is my choice,” he added.

India’s squad for Border-Gavaskar Series: Rohit Sharma (c), Jasprit Bumrah (vc), Ravichandran Ashwin, Mohammad Shami, Abhimanyu Easwaran, Shubman Gill, Ravindra Jadeja, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Dhruv Jurel (wk), Sarfaraz Khan, Virat Kohli, Prasidh Krishna, Rishabh Pant (wk), KL Rahul, Harshit Rana, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Mohammed Siraj, Washington Sundar.

Australia squad for the first Test: Pat Cummins (c), Scott Boland, Alex Carey, Josh Hazlewood, Travis Head, Josh Inglis, Usman Khawaja, Marnus Labuschagne, Nathan Lyon, Mitch Marsh, Nathan McSweeney, Steve Smith, Mitchell Starc.

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