Mumbai Nov 23: Ravichandran Ashwin claimed a four-for as the West Indies scored a mammoth 575 for the loss of nine wickets after batting two whole days at Mumbai’s Wankhede Stadium. The satisfied off-spinner addressed the media at the end of day’s play.
Excerpts from the press conference:
On bowling long spells and guarding against injuries
Spinners are known to bowl long spells. These are wickets where you have to bowl long spells and try and prise the batsman out. Injuries are part and parcel of a game. If you are injured, you are injured. Else you have to do your duties in the middle. It’s a sport at the end of the day.
On his 17 wickets in the series
Wickets are the result of persistence and good bowling. I have tried to be consistent and work out a plan, be around the off-stump and bowl around the patch of the batsman, especially in the case of right-handers. It has paid off well in this series. I never looked to pick wickets [..] I have always maintained that I never set goals in terms of numbers. Numbers are a result of what you do and sometimes the numbers don’t reflect what you have done.
On his performance on Day 2
Very often you bowl really well and don’t get wickets. So at the end of the day you need to be consciously happy at what you have done.
On whether first-class cricket helps one’s Test career
In first-class cricket, you turn up everywhere and you expect the wickets to be like this. But there is a pattern to it; if you bowl a good set of 40 overs from one side and don’t give too many runs away, you know you will end up with a few wickets at the end of the day. The pattern was slightly disturbed in this innings. I thought [Darren] Bravo did wonderfully, in partnership with [Kirk] Edwards and [Kieran] Powell […] So it was a bit of a challenge. There was hardly anything in this wicket. I thought the second day’s wicket was more like a first day’s wicket.
On his mindset
Yesterday I bowled quite a few overs; 26 is a lot of overs for a spinner on a first day’s wicket. But there are just four bowlers in the side so you will have to be rotated and managed properly in the side. The first session I didn’t bowl many [overs]. In the second I was given a job to do, to try and restrict the left-handers and try and prise out a wicket. That didn’t happen. But I knew I would have a chance in the last session because [whatever the] wicket, the last session offers spin and bounce. It didn’t [today] but I was lucky to get two wickets.
On the Indian fielding
You can’t really improve in one day. All in all we came into the match [thinking] that the Bombay wicket would have better bounce, so the fielders stuck to their respective positions. The next time we will try to stand a little up in the slip cordon or backward short-leg.
On getting wickets on the Wankhede pitch
It is quite pleasing that I got wickets […] I don’t know if you can extract anything from this wicket. There isn’t anything to extract at the moment. Probably in the final day there might be something; that’s just a guess. This is my eighth game at Wankhede and this is the first time [that] I am seeing a wicket like this. I am very surprised. It is very much like the practice wicket to the left [of the main [pitch]. I was praying it wouldn’t be like that […] It is one of the best sporting wickets in India so it was disheartening to see it behave the way it did.
On his spell that yielded four wickets
I bought [the wickets]; four for 150. It’s quite a cost. It is about going at the batsmen. Yesterday we had to create chances; if I hadn’t tried in that last spell we might well have gone without a wicket on the day. Today it was more of a catch-up game. We had to do it. We had to restrict them at some point. Suddenly Varun [Aaron] bowled really well and got us two wickets […] There was a chance that you could really go at the batsmen again […] The extent to which you have to attack and defend is much more in Test cricket.
On bowling to Darren Bravo
Notes are definitely to be taken on what I need to work on and where can I attack him. Once he is set he is quite an ominous batsman, not easy to stop. [I couldn’t help wondering,] ‘Why doesn’t the wicket spin just a little [so] I would have a better chance at him?’ He comes in with a strategy which is very evident – just block the ball […] Once a ball beats him it’s a different proposition all together.
On what he was expecting from the wicket
If I said the spinners needed help on the first day in any Test match, I wouldn’t be very happy as a cricketer. You can’t expect the wicket to turn on the first day of a Test match. Bounce is something that I was looking for [but that] didn’t happen. This game I was definitely expecting some bounce, so I felt cheated on that regard.
On the tour to Australia
I don’t think too far. It’s an exciting prospect to play the Test matches in Australia. I’ve had a few tours to Australia as part of [the] Emerging [Players] [unit], etc. [I] know what it is like to play cricket there. [It’s] not going to be easy. I have to work hard and try and replicate my performances there.
On the Indian tracks
It’s very hard to define a wicket in India. When they say it is a true wicket the batting team ends up scoring 500-plus. And when it is a bad wicket a team folds for 150. So one has to first define what a bad wicket is for the batsman and what a bad one is for the bowler.
