India off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin is blessed with a proper cricketing brain and people do listen carefully when he speaks. He is certainly the part of India’s Test team leadership group and getting into his brain ahead of the World Test Championship (WTC) final can be really insightful.
India and New Zealand are set to face each other in the summit clash and there is one thing which bothering fans and seemingly the cricketers who will face Kane Williamson’s side, too.
The Kiwis face England in a 2-Test series ahead of the WTC final and that can give them further edge in conditions they are already more familiar to. Ashwin has reckoned that while it will definitely be challenging for India to face New Zealand after a decent gap from cricketing actions, watching New Zealand lock horns against England can give Team India ‘valuable lessons’. Ashwin also believes that India will adapt and quickly and replicate their performance from Australia.
“We are at least another week to 10 days away from even practising for the first time. Most of the players have not played cricket since the IPL was called off. So I think that is one of the biggest challenges, but once we go there I think the Indian team will adapt quickly and perform like we did in Australia.
“Being match-prepared and having match practice are two different things. We will be going after the IPL. Those two matches will give New Zealand a feeler, but at the same time, watching those two matches can also give some valuable lessons to us. One of the things that I have benefited from is watching cricket footage, going back in time and watching matches in different parts of the world,” Ashwin told the New Indian Express.
India players have not played any form of cricket since the suspension of the IPL 2021 on May 4 in the wake of coronavirus pandemic. They have gathered in Mumbai and are quarantining themselves in their hotel rooms ahead of the England tour which also consists of 5-Test series versus the Three Lions.
On the personal front, Ashwin is just 4 wickets away from becoming the leading wicket-taker in the inaugural WTC.
