India bowling coach Paras Mhambrey said the tough decision to leave out the world's number one ranked bowler Ravichandran Ashwin from the World Test Championship final was based purely on conditions.
Conditions have been cold and overcast at The Oval, especially in the morning, over the past three days but day one saw bright sunshine in the afternoon and evening session.
"It is always a very difficult decision to drop a champion bowler like him. Looking at the conditions in the morning we thought an additional seamer would be beneficial.
"It has also worked in the past for us. Seamers have done well out here for us. You can always look back and say that additional spinner would have been beneficial but we took the call looking at the conditions," said Mhambrey, after Australia reached 327 for three on day one after being put in to bat.
Asked what kind of communications take place with the player who is not included in the eleven, he said: "When team discussion happens, we talk about composition over a period of days. We trained here for three four days before the game and seeing the wicket, conversations happen with players.
"The players also understand that (the importance of team combination)." The bowling coach said India can surely bounce back in the game.
"The second new ball did a bit. The morning session will be important. The wicket played better than our expectations in the last two sessions today,” he said.
Meanwhile, former Indian cricketer Sunil Gavaskar slammed the Team's decision to drop Ashwin out of the Playing XI. While Gavaskar said, 'You are playing WTC final and you don't play the no. 1 test bowler, this decision is beyond my understanding. He added that Ashwin has traditionally performed well against Aussies and it is shocking taht there is no off spinner against this side.
Mahmbrey further informed that Umesh Yadav who bowled only 14 overs in the day had no fitness issues. He also felt bowlers could have done better.
"We could have been more disciplined. After 12-13 overs, we lacked discipline. I felt we conceded more runs that we would have preferred," Mhambrey said adding that they could have employed the short ball tactics earlier than they did.