Debasis Sen, Sydney: It has been a curious case of Indian off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin’s fitness ahead of the Sydney test match here. The off-spinner was ruled out of the playing XI on the morning of the test match after failing a fitness test in front of bowling coach Bharat Arun, physiotherapist Patrick Farhart and head coach Ravi Shastri.
After each delivery, Arun and Farhart exchanged a glance as Ashwin wheeled around and bowled another ball, replicating as best he could match conditions and testing the side he strained in the first Test win in Adelaide almost a month ago that has kept him out of the side ever since.
The ace spinner failed to satisfy the support staff after having bowled enough deliveries. As a result he was declared unfit, and for the second time in less than 24 hours, he was ruled out of the test match.
A quick hand gesture by Arun told Shastri all he needed to know. At this point, the ornate clock atop the SCG Members Stand had ticked past 9:30am AEDT, inside the final hour and less than 30 minutes until the toss.
The team management including Ravi Shastri, Bharat Arun, batting coach Sanjay Bangar, fielding coach R Sridhar, team manager Sunil Subramanium and captain Virat Kohli had a quick meeting among themselves to rule Ashwin out as he was not 100 percent match fit.
But the question arises was he not fit enough to bowl in the test match as he seemed to be in no serious concerns while bowling at the nets with Ravindra Jadeja a day before the test match.