Ahmedabad (Gujarat) [India], February 27 (ANI): India spinner Ravichandran Ashwin on Saturday said that his side does not have any apprehension about the pink-ball Tests and he is confident that every team will adapt to the day-night Tests as they play it more often.
India had managed to defeat England within two days in the pink-ball Test. The match saw both India and England batsmen failing to shine and getting out to balls that didn’t turn and skidded through from the spinners. But critics have looked to blame the pitch for the failure of the batsmen.
“I am not disturbed with things being taken out of context. That is what has been happening for the last decade, if not more. That is why I put out the tweets I did yesterday. People need to get the context and what is happening. There have been people messaging me that the match has finished in two days. Every pink-ball game we have played has ended within three days. I do not know what to say, unfortunately, many people have not played the pink-ball game, so they will not understand this facet of the game,” said Ashwin during a virtual press conference.
“My angst against the whole thing is that someone says one thing, there are so many people watching the same picture but are not able to paint a different one as compared to someone who is driving a certain case and selling a certain case to us. This needs to stop,” he added.
Talking about the challenges of playing with the pink-ball, Ashwin said: “Honestly, if you give a little favoured stat towards the bowlers, this is what might happen. A little bit of advantage towards the bowlers, it starts to swing and seam more. The margin for errors for the batters is so little. These are things which we have noticed, this is the same thing that happened at Eden Gardens when we played against Bangladesh. This is the nature of the pink-ball Test, we got out for 36, England got out for 57 against New Zealand. If you look at the larger picture of Test cricket, you might say these are one-offs, but these are a regular thing in pink-ball Tests.
“There is no apprehension about the pink-ball game for us, if there is apprehension then we can talk to the BCCI. I think it is a completely new thing that has been introduced, we are used to playing against the red ball, everyone is conditioned to play against the red ball, and now the pink ball has been brought in, it is about adapting and getting used to it. That’s how the format will evolve, anything new is going to throw challenges, but that’s the beauty of it,” he added.
Talking about the visibility of the pink-ball, Ashwin said: “I do not think there is any issue about citing the pink ball. The way it skidded is how it skidded. I cannot explain, but a few micro-seconds make a big difference. If it is going to skid on even a fraction of a second quicker, then there is a chance of batsmen getting an inside edge. It is quite different, to make an adjustment within a span of five-six days is not easy, the more we play, the players will get better.”
The loss in the third Test has seen England exit the race for a place in the ICC World Test Championship final. England has dropped to 64.1 percentage points on the points table, which is now led by India with 71 percentage points. New Zealand is assured of a place in the final with 70 percentage points. India need to either win or draw the last Test to stay ahead of Australia, who is in third place with 69.2 percentage points. (ANI)