Ashwin and Jadeja are allowed to have bad games: Rohit Sharma

Ashwin and Jadeja are allowed to have bad games: Rohit Sharma. (Source – Getty Images)

Washington Sundar led the spin attack with his impeccable outing in the second Test against New Zealand in Pune. The spinning all-rounder picked 11 wickets in the game, playing a red-ball international after almost three years. On the other hand, the veteran spinners, Ravichandran Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja’s struggle with the ball was palpable as the duo failed to pick wickets at regular intervals.

On a pitch that offered ample spin for the turners, Mitchell Santner picked 13 wickets for New Zealand. Whereas, Ashwin picked five wickets and Jadeja picked three wickets. Speaking of the duo, India captain, Rohit Sharma, stated that spinners are burdened by too many expectations. He also quipped that it would be “unfair” to expect them to orchestrate a win on their own.

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“There’s too much expectation on those two guys. Every game they play, they are expected to take wickets, they are expected to run through the team, and they are expected to win matches. I don’t think that’s fair, it’s the responsibility of all of us to make sure we get Test wins, not just the two guys. Of course, by their standards, they know where they stand and what they haven’t been able to do or what they haven’t done really well,” Rohit said in a presser after the second Test as quoted by The Daily Star.

India are put behind in the series by New Zealand as they clinched the series by 2-0 with one more encounter to go. This was India’s first series loss at home since 2012 breaking the streak of a mind-boggling 18 series wins. Rohit added that Ashwin and Jadeja have equally contributed to the long-held streak, and one series cannot question their prowess.

“Both of them have played so much cricket here and have such huge contributions to our success of having that home streak of 18 series wins. These two have played a major role in that. A couple of series, I’m not going to look into too much, especially with those two guys … Sometimes they’re allowed to have bad games here and there, and not go by that expectation that this is the opportunity to run through the opposition. That’s not going to happen every time. So you’ve got to be ready with the other guys to step in,” he added.