By Admin 
Australia defeated India by 7 wickets in the rain-affected first ODI. India’s batting, which came to bat first after losing the toss, disappointed, Virat Kohli (0) and Rohit Sharma (8), playing international matches after 224 days, flopped. Captain Shubhman Gill and vice-captain Shreyas Iyer also did not play. India scored 136 runs in 26 overs of play. Chasing the target, Australia won in 21.1 overs. After this, former cricketer R Ashwin raised questions regarding the playing 11. He said that the batsmen will have to do the batting, they will have to take responsibility and the team will also have to focus on bowling.
What did R Ashwin say
While talking on his YouTube channel, Ashwin first said that it was a bad day for Team India because due to rain, the overs were reduced and the toss was lost. Raising questions on the playing 11, he said, “I can understand why there are two spinners along with all-rounder Nitish Kumar Reddy, because he wants depth in batting. Washington and Akshar can bat, but pay some attention to bowling also. These are big grounds, and if Kuldeep does not bowl with freedom on such grounds then where will he bowl.”
He further said, “He wants depth in batting, if you want to win the match with batting then the batsmen have to take responsibility, it is the role of the batsmen to score runs. You play better bowlers, do not play them just because you want extra batsmen.
🚨Ravi Ashwin thrashed Gautam Gambhir for dropping Kuldeep Yadav & playing too many all rounders.
“Please focus on bowling too, if Kuldeep can’t bowl on these big grounds with freedom then where is he gonna bowl? They will talk about this batting depth but it is batter’s job to… pic.twitter.com/C4Uphr4Ed6
— Rajiv (@Rajiv1841) October 19, 2025
How many all-rounders do you need – Ashwin
In the first ODI against Australia, India had played 3 all-rounders in the playing 11. Nitish Kumar Reddy made his debut, Akshar Patel and Washington Sundar were playing with him as all-rounders. Ashwin said, “How many all-rounders do you want, there are three all-rounders. There was a time when there was not even a single all-rounder. There are Nitish, Vashi (Washington Sundar), Akshar. With Nitish, you cannot play with the two best spinners, so I cannot understand it.”