Mirpur: India’s premier spinner Ravichandran Ashwin has no complaints with the seaming track of the Sher-e-Bangla stadium, which has little on offer for the spinners, as he believes in adapting to different conditions rather than whining about it.
“It is very important to know what conditions are thrown at you. You can’t try and beat the conditions. It is very important to go back and understand that it will not spin a lot on these surfaces. That’s why it is even more imperative that we try to bowl in good lengths, get away with our overs rather than looking to go for wickets,” Ashwin said on the eve of their round robin league match against Sri Lanka.
Buoyed by two back-to-back wins, India will aim to extend their winning streak when they take on a depleted Lanka at the Sher-e-Bangla National Cricket Stadium here on Tuesday.
“In T20 format, it is the pressure that gives you wickets rather than exact skill of the ball. That’s what I look to do and when there is any window to attack I will attack irrespective of the wicket. It’s T20 cricket, we might have slower wicket, flatter wickets in World T20. We have to understand situation rather than complaining about it. Testing ourselves in various environments is good for us,” the off-spinner maintained.
For him, it is the home team’s choice to prepare a wicket. “It’s their choice as to what kind of wickets they want. We came thinking that the wickets will be slow but international teams need to adapt to whatever surfaces are thrown at them. Hopefully it has given us a dress rehearsal of how to bat lower down the order,” he said.
Ashwin said that Kohli’s batting against Amir was one of “guts and courage” that gave the dressing room a lot of relief.
“We needed someone to stick his head out as Amir was going through a really good spell. We needed someone to show intent. Virat showed that intent while defending as well as attacking, which gave the dressing room a lot of comfort.
“Obviously, we knew that with a 20-30 run stand, the match will be over as it was not a huge score. From that perspective, Virat showed a lot of guts and courage and that was very encouraging,” said Ashwin.
Form is on India’s side as they have recently outclassed the island nation 2-1 in the T20I series at home. To add to it, Sri Lanka will come into the match after a humiliating 23-run defeat at the hands of Bangladesh on Sunday.
But come Tuesday, it will be a fresh start for both the teams as Sri Lanka will aim to keep aside their poor show against India recently and hope to register a much needed win in the five-nation tournament.
The defending World Twenty20 champions, despite having experienced Tillakaratne Dilshan, Dinesh Chandimal and Lasith Malinga, have failed to make an impact in the Asia Cup, especially leading up to the world event coming up next month in India.
