Ravichandran Ashwin led the show with the bat for India, hitting an unbeaten century to guide them out of trouble.
Ravichandran Ashwin is being praised for his masterclass of an innings during the first day of the Chennai Test between India and Bangladesh which has put his team in a solid spot after they suffered a top-order collapse. Ashwin scored the sixth century of his Test career and was unbeaten on 102 off 112 at stumps with India 339/6 in 80 overs.
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Ashwin walked in to bat at no.8 after India lost Yashasvi Jaiswal and KL Rahul in the space of five deliveries to slip to 144/6. With Jadeja, the star allrounder then stitched an unbroken partnership of 195 runs to put India in the ascendancy.
Ashwin’s was a fluent knock as he dominated the Bangladeshi pacers and spinners with equal ease. He unfurled stylish drives – off the front foot and the backfoot, didn’t shy away from going aerial and clearing the boundary and showed excellent footwork.
Former India opener Aakash Chopra lavished high praise on Ashwin and said the manner in which the 38-year-old dealt with deliveries on his legs often reminds him of legendary batter VVS Laxman.
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“He (Ashwin) waits for the ball to reach him, has all kind of backfoot shots. When it comes to legs, he reminds me of VVS Laxman,” Chopra said on JioCinema. “The way he drove today and used his feet against the spin, hit a six on a bent knee – showed all his range. It was an important innings. India could’ve been bowled out for a lot less and we would have been discussing an altogether different story. Shoe is in the other foot though courtesy Ashwin. Jadeja outstanding but Ashwin deserves a little more credit for what he did today.”
Chopra called Ashwin on organised player and pointed out how this was his first international game since the England Test series earlier this year.
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“We became habituated to watching him (Ashwin) score plenty of runs and then there was a slight dip in his batting form, there was a demotion in batting order but he’s a pretty solid and organised player and has the ability to absorb pressure,” Chopra said.
“That’s the way he has always played. Others had at least played world cup and then some ODIs and T20Is but he last played an international game against England. In IPL, he rarely gets to bat,” he added.
