India’s premier off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin on Saturday said his plan of luring Australia batters to play drive-shots and induce mistakes from them on a slow Nagpur track worked well as the home side won the first Test by an innings and 132 runs in Nagpur. Ashwin was India’s highest wicket-taker with figure of 8 for 79, with a five-for in Australia’s second innings on the third day on Saturday.
“The wicket was very slow. I have been saying this all through the Test. Not one of those pitches where you might get the gloves ripping off at short leg or silly point. You need to get the batsman driving on this wicket,” Ashwin said after the match.
“So I thought giving them (Australia batters) one of two balls to drive, induce them into shots and probably induce the other half of the bat as well.”
Jadeja also scored 70 crucial runs in India’s first innings total of 400, besides taking seven wickets for 81 runs, while Axar contributed 84 with the bat to become the second highest scorer for India in the match after captain Rohit Sharma (120).
“To say (that I got) massive help from Jadu will be an understatement. He has been in phenomenal form. In the last three years, the way he has batted and bowled, we don’t need to talk how well he moves on the field and how much addition he has been to the team, he has just been a fantastic cricketer.
“I am so thankful that I got a bowling partner like him. Axar is also no ordinary bowler either, so we have a very good set of spinners and we all can also bat,” said Ashwin.
