Mitchell Starc's absence restricted the off spinners from taking wickets, feels Sourav Ganguly

Ex-Indian captain Sourav Ganguly believes that the injury blow to Mitchell Starc has proved costly for the spinners of both the teams in the third Test at Ranchi. Off spinners Ravichandran Ashwin and Nathan Lyon failed to impress with the ball at Ranchi as they did in the previous two Tests. According to ‘Dada’, the spinners were unable to locate the rugged area outside the off stump and make use of it. The rough outside the off stump is often formed as a result of the deliveries of a left arm pacer.

Ravichandran Ashwin, who is currently at the second spot of the Test bowler rankings, managed only two wickets in the Test match giving away 185 runs. However, Ashwin spent a lot of time with the ball bowling 64 overs in the third Test. Whereas his Aussie counterpart Nathan Lyon, who had single-handedly dismantled the Indians in the first Test at Pune recording his best figure of 8/50, grabbed only a single wicket of Cheteshwar Pujara in the third Test. Pujara announced himself as the star performer of the match scoring a brilliant double hundred, which was the first of the series.

“Off-spinners did not get wickets here. This is because Mitchell Starc was not there, so the rough outside off-stump was not created,” said Ganguly as per the quotes in India Today.

Mitchell Starc, who is understood to be one of the most destructive bowlers of the current era, was in his usual best from the beginning of the series. Quite unfortunately for the stormy left armer, he had to be sidelined for the rest of the series, due to a stress fracture on his right foot. The injury to Starc opened the gates for Pat Cummins, who played his first ever Test match on Indian pitches in the Ranchi Test.

The Indians were terrific with the bat as they put up a colossal total of 603/9 in response to Australia’s 451. Pujara’s 202 run inning was the main attraction in the scorecard while Wriddhiman Saha played a gutsy knock of 117 runs. The Australians lost wickets early in their second innings and were on the brink of giving away the Indians a 2-1 lead in the series. But Shaun Marsh and Peter Handscomb combined brilliantly to save the Test match putting up a 124 run partnership for the fifth wicket.

“They (Marsh and Handscomb) played really well,” Ganguly said. However, the Bengal tiger was reluctant to speak too much on Ashwin’s failure to pick up wickets in the Ranchi match. Sourav said “He got wickets in the last match only.”

The final match of the series will get underway at Dharamshala from Saturday. With the series levelled at one each, we are set for a scintillating encounter between both teams who will look to bag the Border-Gavaskar trophy.