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The plan was to tempt Australian batsmen to play drive shots: Ashwin

India’s premier off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin on Saturday said his plan to lure the Australian batsmen into making mistakes by playing drive shots on a slow track in Nagpur worked as the home team won the first Test by an innings and 132 runs.

Ashwin (8/79) was the top wicket-taker for India, including a five-wicket haul in Australia’s second innings on the third day on Saturday. Ashwin said after the match, “The wicket was very slow. I have been saying this throughout the Test. It was not one of those pitches where the ball would go through the gloves. You needed to provoke the batsmen to play drive shots on this wicket.

He said, “So I thought to give them (Australian batsmen) one or two balls to drive, provoke them to play shots. Ashwin praised the home team’s spinners who can also bat as did man-of-the-match Ravindra Jadeja and Akshar Patel. Jadeja scalped seven wickets and also contributed 70 runs while Akshar contributed 84 runs with the bat, finishing second in the match behind skipper Rohit Sharma (120 runs).

Ashwin said, “I got a lot of help from Jaddu, he has been in great form. The way he has batted and bowled in the last three years, we don’t need to talk about his performance in the field. He is a wonderful cricketer. I am thankful that I have got a bowling partner like him. Akshar is also not an ordinary bowler, we have very good spinners who can also bat. ,

Asked about the dominating win against a top team like Australia, Ashwin said, “I would give credit to our batting unit, they batted well against the Aussies.” It was difficult for them to come back to bat and the early wickets set the tone for us today. In the first innings, Ashwin, who came in at number three in place of Cheteshwar Pujara, contributed 23 runs.

When asked about batting at this number, he said, “I have been asking about the opportunity to bat initially. I was feeling quite nervous these days watching other batsmen bat. If there was a chance in this Test, I presented myself. My friend (Cheteshwar) Pujara let me come in as night watchman as there were 20 minutes left for the first day to end and I happily grabbed the opportunity.

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