In Ravichandran Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja and Axar Patel, India have three cricketers who can spin the opposition out on subcontinent conditions by stifling them with their immaculate lines and lengths and also score invaluable runs at the lower-middle order. The three all-rounders played a pivotal role in India’s emphatic innings and 132-run victory over Australia in the first Test of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy in Nagpur. Australia were bowled out for 177 in their first innings after opting to bat first. Ashwin and Jadeja shared eight wickets between them with the former taking the honours with figures of 5/47.
In the second innings, Ashwin did not allow any time to the Australian batting unit. He registered his 31st five-wicket haul in Tests, to bowl them out for 91 in just 32.3 overs in one session on Day 3. Jadeja chipped in with a couple of wickets. Together the experienced duo bowled 24 of the 32.3 overs in Australia’s second innings.
After India’s huge victory inside three days that gave them a 1-0 lead in the four-match series, captain Rohit Sharma said it was difficult for him to take the ball out of Jadeja and Ashwin’s hands in the second innings.
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It’s a I’ll tough (to handle three spinners). They are always inching towards their milestones. Jadeja was telling me, mereko ball do, I need 1 wicket to reach 250. Ashwin had picked up four wickets, he was closing in on five wickets, and he wanted to bowl. That is the challenge I am facing at the moment with these guys. I don’t know too much about the milestones but these guys are quite aware of it. These guys are of real quality. The pressure is always on me to find the right end for them,” Rohit said in the post-match press conference on Saturday.
Thankfully for Rohit, both Ashwin and Jadeja reached their respective milestones. The Indian captain said he looks at match-ups while deciding which bowler to choose against a particular batter.
“I always try to find the right match-up. Ashwin has a great match-up against left-handers. Axar and Jadeja have unbelievable numbers against right-handers,” he said.
Ashwin dismissed all four left-handers in Australia’s top seven in the second innings.
Rohit also compared Ashwin, Jadeja and Axar Patel with Australia fast bowlers Pat Cummins, Josh Hazlewood and Mitchell Starc.
“It’s like captaining Cummins, Hazlewood and Starc in Australia. When you have the quality of Ashwin, Axar and Jadeja, who have played in India for so many years, have grown up playing on pitches like these, it’s always a blessing. They never disappoint. The conditions are there, yes but you have to come out and utilise those conditions because the pitch is the same for both teams, it’s not only for us.
“They know what to do on these pitches, where to bowl, which areas to hit and how to keep applying that pressure by keeping the field right,” he said.
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