Ashwin – ThePrint – PTIFeed

Mumbai, Nov 2 (PTI) Senior spinner Ravichandran Ashwin admitted that batting around 150 will not be very easy for the Indian batters at the not-so-typical Wankhede turn where the track behaves differently at the two ends.

New Zealand finished the second day at 171 for 9 in their second innings with an overall lead of 143, which many, like former India captain and head coach Anil Kumble, consider a difficult target given the track.

What surprised Ashwin was the low bounce of the ball, which is not exactly synonymous with the red soil in Mumbai that helps the ball fly.

“We expected a much bigger rebound. It was quite slow, which is a surprise. It’s not a typical Bombay pitch, it’s much slower.” Ashwin, to many India’s “bowling savant”, explained why he used the Carrom ball, one that can be bowled with a flick of two fingers that turns in the opposite direction. A similar pitch went to Glenn Phillips, who did not read it off hand.

“The game itself is divided into two halves. The one at the end of the pavilion and the one at the other end behave a little differently. It’s a little flatter than where we hit from the locker room, there’s a lot less bounce. So I thought I’d try using it in a different way.

“The (New Zealand) batters also know that I am easier to beat from this side. So I wanted to give something different,” he explained his reasons.

On his brilliant 19m catch off Daryl Mitchell, Ashwin said he trusted his hands.

“Despite all the criticism you’ve given me over the years (toward Karthik), I don’t think I’ve dropped much. I have great hands and I trust them. I just told myself that he would leave me anyway, I wanted to get as close to the ball as possible,” he concluded. PTI KHS KHS SSC SSC

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