ICC Champions Trophy: Ravichandran Ashwin's selection puts me out of the 15-member squad, claims Harbhajan Singh

TNN Bureau. Updated: 5/26/2017 1:00:08 PM Sports and Culture

New Delhi: Veteran Indian off-spinner Harbhajan Singh blantantly came forth in an interview to state that Ravichandran Ashwin's selection into the ICC Champions Trophy squad is the reason why he couldn't make it to the 15-member list for England.

The 36-year-old bowler has scalped a total of 269 ODI wickets in 236 matches in a career spanning over 17 years and still counting. The last of his spin on an international scenario traces back to 2016, where India was battling UAE in the World T20 Group stage. Even then, the offie was given a chance to feature in just one game of the entire tournament. His last ODI match was back in late 2015, against South Africa at Wankhede. Since then, his constant struggle to don the blue jersey once again has gone in vain.

He took to domestic and Indian Premier League tournaments to hone on his skill and thus, mark a return to the team, but the spinner who was picked for the 2011 World Cup winning team, failed to impress the selectors despite having a rather fair season. As a matter of fact, the offie had the best economy rate amongst the bowlers of Mumbai Indians, in the tenth edition. Harbhajan thus blamed the selectors saying they have different rules for different players.

"He (Ashwin) was rested for the IPL because he needs to get fit for the Champions Trophy. I understand all of that. But if you do well, you should be rewarded or considered at least. Aisa naheen key humney discuss naheen kiya (It is not that we haven't discussed it before), next question. Why do we have two different rules for two different people?'' the bowler asked, in an interview to NDTV.

The Turbanator was even crictical in the scenario of Gautam Gambhir not being part of the squad despite his consistent performance in IPL seasons. "It is not fair to be honest. Why do we play such tournaments (like the IPL)? We play to get selected to play for India. If people are doing well. Let's talk about Gautam Gambhir. He has the most number of runs consistently. If I talk about myself, yes, you know we all were hoping that we might be somewhere in the mix. But knowing that in my scenario I knew that If Ashwin will be fit then he will be there in the team and if he is not then I have a chance," commented Bhajji.

As per reports, the reason behind selectors not adding Harbhajan and Gambhir to the squad is because of their poor fielding skills, which isn't up to the level of the rest of the members. ''See if someone comes and tells me that this is one thing that is lacking in you that's the reason you're not there in the squad but nobody has told me. There is no communication. If someone tells me this is how fit we need you to be, at the end I want to play for India so I will work on it," said Harbhajan.

Adding onto the same, Bhajji said," MSK Prasad, when he had first taken up the position of Chairman of Selectors, had made it clear that no player once injured would be allowed to return to the Indian Team without proving his fitness in a match like situation. But in the case of Ashwin that is unlikely to happen considering he did not play in the IPL and the Champions Trophy is immediately after. With this statement, Harbhajan slammed the selection committee for their double standard nature.

The turbanator proves his point by saying, ''Because he was rested by the team management itself, given the thought that we need him totally fit for the Champions Trophy so in scenarios like this with one or two players we can make this exception. But even in the case of Ashwin I'm sure a fitness test will happen."

He concluded the interview by saying that he knows Virat Kohli and Anil Kumble will be taking the right decision. "Knowing Virat and Anil bhai (Kumble) I'm sure they would not want to have an injured player in the squad. And knowing Ashwin, he is a champion bowler, he will not say that I'm half-fit but take me. He will say if he is feeling a niggle. I wish he is okay and I wish him all the luck to do well in the Champions Trophy.''


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