England’s three centurions – Joe Root, Moeen Ali and Ben Stokes – made the most of the flat track to bully the Indian bowlers including Ashwin. He erred in length on occasions, letting Stokes dance down the track and play some exquisite on-drives and also pull him to the mid-wicket fence.
Left-arm spinner Ravindra Jadeja, who picked up the most wickets for India (3/86) on his home ground, said it was the responsibility of all the bowlers to pick up wickets, not just his spin counterpart.
Asked if Ashwin’s inability to take wickets was the cause for England putting up a 500-plus total, Jadeja said: “Nothing like that. We had five bowlers. It is the responsibility of all the other bowlers including me to pick up wickets. It’s not just Ashwin’s responsibility. On a given day, good bowlers don’t take wickets. There are half-chances and catches are dropped. It is part of the game.”
Credit must be given to the visitors too. Rather than going in with a pre-determined mindset to tackle Ashwin and Co, England patiently took one ball at a time, facing what was directed at them.
As Wednesday’s centurion Joe Root said: “It wasn’t a specific approach against Ashwin. More than anything, as soon as anyone lets go out of the ball, you’ve just got to play what’s coming at you. We tried to make sure we used the both sides of the wicket. Not just score with the spin, but try and do against if the opportunities arose and make it hard for him to bowl one length.”
Root, though, did pay respect to Ashwin for his record. “You got to actually respect these guys for being successful for a long period of time and even for the previous series.”
Purely going by current form, Ashwin cannot be kept quiet for long. But this Test has been a learning experience for India’s premier spinner.
(Sourced from agencies, feature image courtesy:oneindia.com)
