Nehra has also thrown his support behind struggling Ishant Sharma.
Former Indian pacer Ashish Nehra on Tuesday (August 31) said he would be “surprised” if the premier off-spinner R Ashwin doesn’t get the nod in India’s Playing XI for the upcoming fourth Test against England, starting on Thursday (September 2) at The Oval.
Ashwin had been warming the bench for the first three Tests on the England tour and Nehra also admitted that it is difficult to predict conditions in England, but feels the off-spinner should get the opportunity in the fourth Test, considering the conditions are expected to assist the spinners at The Oval.
Nehra said in a virtual press conference organized by Sony ahead of the fourth Test: “I’ll be very surprised if that happens (Ashwin doesn’t play) because Oval is one wicket where there is some help for the spinners. If this Test would have been in Nottingham or Manchester, India could have gone in with four pacers as Virat Kohli believes in fast bowling, and Ravindra Jadeja as the fifth bowling option.”
The cricketer-turned-commentator explained, “Oval is known as a good batting surface. England is a place where conditions are changing with every session, depending on weather or when you talk about the Dukes ball, damp weather, up north, down south – there are too many ifs and buts.”
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He added, “Oval is one wicket where we’ve seen little extra bounce but there isn’t much movement since it’s in London, especially if it’s a sunny day. But at the same time, what I have been hearing in the last 10 days in London is that it’s quite cold. So it’s difficult to predict conditions in England but you might see Ashwin. There’s a chance of him playing in place of one fast bowler.”
Meanwhile, India’s experienced pacer Ishant Sharma didn’t look good with the ball in the third Test, as he went wicket-less and bowled a number of no-balls in India’s massive defeat against England in Leeds.
In the three innings so far in the Test series, Ishant could manage only 5 wickets and Nehra admitted that the pacer didn’t look in the best of the rhythm, but said the veteran bowler shouldn’t be judged on the basis of a few bad performances, given his great experience.
Nehra signed off by saying, “Yes, Ishant didn’t look in the best of the rhythm. But if you see, he didn’t play the first game. And even in the second game, it took him a little while, but a player like him who has played 100 Tests did get back into the groove and he had a good Test at Lord’s. I am not a big believer of judging a player like Ishant on the basis of one match performance. We’re only discussing him since we lost the Test, and we didn’t lose it because of him.”