India off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin analysed the happenings of the first two Test matches in Hyderabad and Visakhapatnam on his YouTube channel on Monday. India appeared perplexed at times against England’s aggressive brand of cricket and lost the opening match in Hyderabad by a margin of 28 runs. In Hyderabad, Bazball did manage to startle India while Ollie Pope and other English batters caused India problems with their reverse-sweep strokes. In order to counter them, the India spinners altered their strategies in the subsequent games. Yet, some of the comments from the English players raised eyebrows that seemed to indicate that the team was overconfident about their abilities.
Now, in a video uploaded on his YouTube channel, Ashwin has given his verdict on what Bazball is and also talked about James Anderson, Joe Root – the two senior-most players in the English team at the moment.
“James Anderson went into a press conference in the second Test after winning the first considerably well. Much respect to them for winning that. He told the press that even if the 4th innings target was 500 or 600, we’d finish it in 60 overs. Even though it was an example of their positive mindset, it felt like they had gone too far," Ravichandran Ashwin said in Tamil.
Ashwin also went on to add that Bazball was “defenceless cricket" in addition to being an aggressive style of play. “In the Vizag Test, the first two innings were the same as the first Test. We should have scored 500+ but underscored with 300-odd in the first innings. As usual, they were on their aggressive route, with (Zak) Crawley and (Ben) Duckett," he said.
The off-spinner went on to add, “The one thing I personally understood after the first Test is that Bazball isn’t just aggressive cricket. It is defenceless cricket. They aren’t going to play a defensive shot at all, like a mindset of ‘we are going to get out if we play defence.’ To my surprise, even Joe Root bought into that approach because he is clearly the world’s best defensive player against spin if you ask me."
At the HPCA Stadium in Dharamsala, India won the fifth Test by an innings and 64 runs on Saturday, securing a 4-1 series victory over England. India’s victory was largely attributed to the spinners, who claimed 18 of the 20 English wickets that fell.
Ashwin completed several milestones during the series. In the third Test in Rajkot, the 37-year-old picked up his 500th wicket to become only the second Indian bowler ever to achieve the feat. In the final Test, he received his 100th Test cap and picked up nine wickets, including a five-wicket haul in the second innings, to completely destroy the English batting unit.
The legendary off-spinner will next be seen in action in the 2024 edition of the Indian Premier League, where he will be donning the pink and blue of Rajasthan Royals.
Comments
0 comment