Dinesh Karthik gives his take on utilisation of spinners by India during WTC final against Australia

New Delhi [India], May 29 (ANI): Indian wicketkeeper-batter veteran Dinesh Karthik gave his take on the inclusion of two spin bowling all-rounders, Ravichandran Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja in India's playing XI for the ICC World Test Championship against Australia, which will start from June 7 onwards.
India successfully utilised three spinners in their playing XI during the recent Border-Gavaskar Test series on the sub-continent - with veteran Ravichandran Ashwin (25 wickets), star all-rounder Ravindra Jadeja (22) and emerging left-armer Axar Patel (three) combining to take 50 wickets and guide the side to a dominant 2-1 series triumph at home.
Karthik believes the decision to include both Ashwin and Jadeja in India's XI for the 2021 World Test Championship final against New Zealand was an error and has urged selectors not to make the same mistake twice and play just one specialist spinner for the South London clash.
"I think it will be a very brave call to even play two (spinners) - Ashwin and Jadeja together. It might come down to a stage where, are they going to look at just the one spin option and an extra fast-bowling all-round option in Shardul Thakur or are they going to go with two spinners?," said Karthik as quoted by ICC.
"It will be an answer which will be easier said closer to the day of the match because the conditions will dictate whether they are going to go in with two spinners. I remember very vividly the last time they did feel that they had made an error by playing both the spinners in the Southampton Test match (2021 World Test Championship final) which did not probably aid spin much and both of them were under bowled."
"It will be very interesting to see if India go down that route where they play both the spinners. The last time they played in England, they went for the fast-bowling all-rounder and just the one spinner, so they very much could go in with the same attack," concluded Karthik.
India will lock horns with Australia in the WTC final at The Oval on June 7.
Australia and India have finalised their 15-player squads for the upcoming ICC World Test Championship final at The Oval.
Both teams submitted their final squads to the ICC on Sunday, with Australia trimming their original 17-player squad by two to land on the 15 players that will take on India in south London from June 7.
Australia squad: Pat Cummins (c), Scott Boland, Alex Carey (wk), Cameron Green, Marcus Harris, Josh Hazlewood, Travis Head, Josh Inglis (wk), Usman Khawaja, Marnus Labuschagne, Nathan Lyon, Todd Murphy, Steve Smith (vc), Mitchell Starc and David Warner.
Standby players: Mitch Marsh and Matthew Renshaw.
India squad: Rohit Sharma (c), Shubman Gill, Cheteshwar Pujara, Virat Kohli, Ajinkya Rahane, KS Bharat (wk), Ravichandran Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja, Axar Patel, Shardul Thakur, Mohd. Shami, Mohd. Siraj, Umesh Yadav, Jaydev Unadkat and Ishan Kishan (wk).
Standby players: Yashasvi Jaiswal, Mukesh Kumar and Suryakumar Yadav. (ANI)