‘Did India overthink things?’: Damien Fleming raises questions on Ashwin’s omission

Former Australia cricketer Damien Fleming and broadcaster Gerard Whateley reckon India may have overthought their decision to include R Ashwin in their playing XI for the WTC final.“Did India overthink things?” Whateley asked on Australia’s SEN. “Did they outsmart themselves? The previous 34 times India had won the toss they’d elected to bat. They left Ashwin out of the team and the end of the day, they could really have used him.”Fleming believes India should have included Ashwin and that pacers Umesh Yadav and Shardul Thakur couldn’t build enough pressure for the Australian batters.
“They should have played Ashwin,” Fleming said.
“I think their selection forced their hand, winning the toss (and choosing to bowl) because of little bit of grass,” he said. “My worry for India is, I think they’re short on batting.”
“KS Bharat is batting at six who only averaged 20 in that series against Australia and then you’re relying on the bowling all-rounders in Jadeja.”
“I thought Ashwin would play and in hindsight, he should have, because I thought Yadav and Thakur just didn’t beat build pressure, did they? In good conditions for them.”
Fleming thinks Australia could have had a great chance to put the Test out of reach early if had decided to bowl first, and that the Indians should have been ahead on Day 1 for their decision to do so to be justified.
“I can see why they bowled first as I said with the short batting line up,” Fleming said.
“But they needed to be ahead of the game on day one hoping that Jadeja would play a big part in the second innings for Australia.”
“But if Australia gets 500 here, I just can’t see Australia losing the game. That pitch to me looks like it’ll move at least for the next two days.”

“ the end of day two, if we get early wickets and get into Bharat at number six and Jadeja at seven … they could be batting for a second time very quickly,” he added.