IMAGE: R Ashwin in action for India. Photograph: Ben Foakes / ReutersRavichandran Ashwin continued his absolute dominance over batters during the first Test against Bangladesh, returning with a six-wicket haul, and the star off-spinner said he enjoyed every moment of bowling on the red-soil pitch, which is often perceived as pacer-friendly, because of the steep bounce it offers.
Ashwin's 6 for 88 propelled India to a massive 280-run victory here on Sunday. Now, the 38-year-old has 522 Test victims from 101 Tests.
The latest masterclass by Ashwin was a tribute to his ability to pick up wickets irrespective of conditions and nature of pitches.
Ashwin's skillsets and a sharp cricketing brain helped him exploit the bounce on the pitch, rather than waiting for the deck to offer spin.
“Look, I think this pitch, even if you bowl good balls, you will go for runs. But the bounce is going to be quite daunting. The beauty about red soil is you put revs on it, there is value and there is bounce,” Ashwin told reporters in the post-match press meet.
In fact, the Chennai cricketer went ahead and said he preferred to play on such tracks rather than the black-soil ones.
“You play on some black clay surfaces around the country, and without naming them, you have to do a lot of hard work, put a lot of revs and see nothing come out of it."
"So, to even understand all these, and talk about it is a fair amount of learning for me. It's happened over the years. Like I said, this one's got solid bounce.
I will any day play on a surface like this and get hit than play on other surfaces,” he elaborated.
Ashwin also lamented the fact that, black-soil pitches have become prevalent across the country over the years.
“The surfaces react very differently at different times of the year. We've lost a lot of red soil pitches over the years, which was a key component of playing Test cricket in India.”
The 38-year-old pressed forth the need for keeping the variety in pitches rather than giving it a uniform character.
“Sometimes around the country, people do make the mistake of terming India as a whole. I actually think India has a lot of foreign soil in its own nature. Sometimes, you go to Eden, it doesn't feel home. Then you go to Dharamshala, all of a sudden, it doesn't feel home,” he offered.
Ashwin also decried the common perception that pitches in India are similar natured.
“For some wild reason, people don't seem to assimilate this because the nature of soil is different, the weather is different.
“It's not like Australia where every Boxing Day Test match happens at Melbourne. We don't do that. The Pongal Test doesn't happen in Chennai always,” he concluded
