Finally, the day arrived. After a long break, the Indian fans experienced the classic thrills of the longest format. Chennai is hosting the first Test match of India’s two-match Test series against Bangladesh. The first day of the first Test match became interesting as Ravichandran Ashwin scored a century after a long. In front of his home crowd, the century has indeed been special. After remaining unbeaten till the end, he shared his feelings.
Ashwin’s Crucial Century and After Words:
After a lengthy white-ball season, Team India finally came back to the longest format. They are facing Bangladesh in a two-match Test series on home soil. As Chennai is facing the first match of the series, Team India faced setbacks initially. They lost their first three wickets only in 34 runs. After the wickets went down consecutively, Team India was under pressure.
Coming to bat at number 8 position, Ravichandran Ashwin batted responsibly. He completed his 6th Test hundred in just 108 deliveries. His exceptional half-century gave a huge boost to Team India’s innings. Ashwin has reached a significant milestone. He is now only the second cricketer globally to score 1,000 runs in the WTC. Additionally, he has surpassed 100 wickets in this format.
After having one of the best days on the field, Ashwin shared his feelings. While talking to former Indian coach Ravi Shastri, Ashwin said, “Always a special feeling to play in front of the home crowd. This is a ground I completely love to play cricket in. It’s given me a lot of wonderful memories. The last time I got a hundred, you were the coach Ravi bhai.”
Reaching special milestones on home ground is special for everyone. There is no difference for Ravichandran Ashwin. While talking about this, he said, “ It does feel special. It helps that I have come back at the back of a T20 tournament (TNPL), worked quite a bit on my batting. Of course, I have always been wafting my bat around outside off-stump.”
Later he added, “Worked on a few things and on a surface like this with a bit of spice, if you’re going after the ball, might as well go after it really hard like Rishabh does. It’s an old Chennai surface with a bit of bounce and carry. The red soil pitch allows you to play a few shots if you are willing to just get in line and give it a bit of a tonk when there’s width.”
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On that Exceptional Partnership With Jadeja:
India was standing on a crucial point after KL Rahul was dismissed in the 43rd over. At that time, Team India was on 144/6. Since then, an incredible partnership between Ravindra Jadeja and Ravichandran Ashwin made an incredible partnership. Both completed their half-centuries. Ashwin completed his century and the duo made an unbeaten 195-run partnership.
Ashwin raised his spin partner Jadeja for assisting him throughout the innings. The legendary spinner said, “ He was of real help, there was a point in time where I was really sweating and getting a bit tired, Jaddu noticed it quickly and guided me through that phase.”
Later he added, “Jaddu has been one of our best batters for our team in the last few years. Him being there, pretty solid and he was also very helpful in terms of telling me that we don’t have to convert twos into threes which was really helpful for me.”
About the Conditions on the Next Day:
Even after starting the game with consecutive setbacks, Team India bounced back. They ended the day on a strong position scoring 339/6. Ravindra Jadeja is unbeaten on 86 runs in 117 balls and Ashwin is unbeaten on 102 runs in 112 balls. The duo will resume the play on the second day. The first few times will be crucial of the second day.
After the first day ended, Ravichandran Ashwin was asked about the pitch’s behavior on the next day. While answering this, the star said, “It’s a typical, old-fashioned Chennai pitch where overspin will fetch a bit of bounce. The wicket will start doing its tricks much later in the game. There’s enough in it for the quicks, good carry, good bounce if we present the seam nice and hard.”
Later he added, “The new ball will do a bit, there’ll be some help for the bowlers, we’ll have to start afresh tomorrow. There’s a bit in the pitch, it’s still damp underneath, so hopefully as it dries out, it quickens up.”
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