Indian experienced off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin has felt that there were many positive things came out for the Indian cricket team despite their defeat in the first Test of five-match Test series at Edgbaston (Birmingham).

While India lost the game by 31 runs, Ashwin provided the important performances with the ball in hands as he had the bowling figures of 26-7-62-4 & 21-4-59-3. Though India failed to win the Test match, especially due to their batting disaster, Ashwin feels that they had many positive sides during the Test match.

In the post-match media interaction, Ashwin said, “When you make runs and pick up wickets, you want to make sure that it is a killer blow (to the opposition) and you want to end up on the winning side. It gives you more pleasure out of the game and when it doesn’t happen, you feel a little deflated about it. This game was like a see saw battle and there was enough in there for the pacers.

Also read: Twitter Reactions: Dinesh Karthik instructed Ravichandran Ashwin in Tamil

“So they were always in the game and you do expect batsmen to get a ball that has their name on it. With that sort of a game hedging on the balance, I thought we competed really well throughout. There are a lot of things to be upbeat about, so (I am) not completely feeling deflated.”

Ashwin believes that the Edgbaston pitch was tough for batting as the batsmen hardly getting the freedom to score runs.

Ashwin said about the pitch, “It was quite a tough pitch to bat on. I don’t think batsmen from both sides were able to make runs with a lot of freedom barring the partnership between Joe Root and Jonny Bairstow in the first innings, and then Virat Kohli from our side. It has been quite a struggle that way so I think we need to give batsmen some space.

Also watch – KL Rahul’s Brilliant Catch To Dismiss Joe Root

Ashwin feels proud the Indian side for a lot of positive things and also believes that it is unfair to feel defeated so early in the long Test series.

The 31-year-old said, “This was a game where we would have liked to finish on the winning side. No doubt about it. But there are a lot of things we can feel proud of at the end of this game. It’s a long test series so to feel defeated or pained so early on in the series is unfair.”

When the day four started, India needed 84 runs for victory with five wickets in hands and the skipper Virat Kohli and wicketkeeper-batsman Dinesh Karthik were in the crease. Ashwin said that their hopes were alive in that Test match until the end of the game.

The experienced Indian off-spinner said, “When Virat and Dinesh (Karthik) walked out I genuinely believed we had the aces in our hands. And that wicket the first blow was quite crucial. Our talk in the morning was about trying to stick together and be behind every one that walks out to bat. I thought we did pretty well, and even when Umesh (Yadav) was batting, our hopes were alive.

Also read: Sam Curran thanks his family support to make him stronger

“We did think that if Hardik could lay his hands on a couple big shots we were in the game. I have been on tours since 2011 and that way this team has got a really positive vibe in terms of at least believing that we can pull it off from any stage. We have done it in the past, particularly in the last three or four away tours that we have been on. (But) If you have to win a Test series in England, that too a five-Test series, we will have to pull off something special at some stage.”