Ravichandran Ashwin was preferred over Washington Sundar for the second Test because the Indian team management reckoned the senior off-spinner would be more effective on the Adelaide Oval surface, assistant coach Ryan ten Doeschate said on Friday.
Also, Ashwin's record in pink-ball Tests helped him pip Ravindra Jadeja and Sundar in the playing XI.
Australia dominated the opening day's play and reached 86/1 at stumps after bowling out India for 180 in their first innings, making a strong comeback following the 295-run hammering they received at the hands of the visitors in the series opener at Perth.
"Washy hasn't put a foot wrong since he's come into the fold, halfway through that New Zealand series... I guess the thinking going into the last Test, we wanted to strengthen the batting," ten Doeschate said at the post-day press conference.
"And given what we saw of Nitish in the first Test, we kind of thought we'd go with what we perceived to be the guys bowling the best spin at the moment. And we feel Ash is more likely to get wickets in these conditions."
"When you get the confidence of Nitish batting at 7, it doesn't really matter with Ash batting at 8. And that was the thinking. Not much to choose between them. And we just thought that Ash would be slightly more effective on this wicket," he added.
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