India have defended their decision to leave the world’s top-ranked Test bowler Ravichandran Ashwin out of an attack that got flogged by Australia’s batters at the World Test Championship final.

There was more than a little surprise when the veteran spin star’s name was omitted from the Indian line-up for The Oval on Wednesday, with Ricky Ponting among the critics.

Ashwin has for so long proved Australia’s tormentor-in-chief with 114 wickets at 28.36 apiece, with regular success against a left-hander dominated top order.

And by the end of a trying day for India’s weary-looking seam attack, with only spin allrounder Ravi Jadeja to ease their load, the gamble of leaving the 36-year-old out looked to already be costly as Australia finished in a dominant position on 3-327.

“It’s always a very difficult decision to drop a champion bowler like that,” conceded Paras Mhambrey, India’s former Test seamer who’s now their bowling coach.

“But looking at the (cool) conditions in the morning, I thought having the additional seamer would definitely be beneficial - and it also has worked in the past.

“If you look at the earlier games that we played - the last Test match we went in with four seamers, which really did well.

“The seamers have done well out here for us but you can always look at the hindsight, saying additional spinner would have been a different.”

The workload on the Indian fast bowlers appeared to have taken its toll come the last session as Travis Head and Steve Smith punished them mercilessly in an unbroken 251-run partnership.

But Mhambrey was still adamant India could win from their difficult position. “Yes, why not? The second new ball, we saw the ball was getting a little seam, it was getting cut,” he said.

“Tomorrow morning will be an important session for us. If we take a few wicket pick-ups quickly, then definitely we have an opportunity to come back in the game.”