Former India player and veteran commentator Aakash Chopra has applauded Ravichandran Ashwin’s performances in the recently concluded Test series between India and Bangladesh. He added that the off-spinner’s persistent bowling in the good-length areas helped him to do well.

During a discussion on Colors Cineplex, Aakash Chopra said, “Ravichandran Ashwin’s specialty is this. You need to learn that being boring is a fantastic thing in Test cricket. You need to keep bowling the same thing repeatedly at the same place. This is not a blacksmith’s game but a goldsmith’s game. A blacksmith hits hard, makes like that and the noise is also very loud, but the goldsmith keeps working on a single area, and then a very nice jewelry piece is created. This is actual bowling of Test cricket, where you keep bowling in one area so that the batter gets troubled and tries something different. We have seen people getting out while doing something different.”

However, R Ashwin won the Player of the Series award for the 11th time in Tests as well. It is the joint-most in the Test, with Muttiah Muralitharan also having won the accolade as many times.

“You get wickets on balls that fall in the good length area because you have to mostly go forward to play those deliveries. When the balls can be played off the back foot against spin, it means you have neutralized him (the spinner). If the bowler is pulling you forward, it means he is allowing the ball to remain in the air for some time and pitching it slightly fuller. When you bowl fuller, multiple options get opened up. You have chances of bat-pad, leg-before, and catches,” he said.

“He has also done it on two different pitches. You bowl very differently on black-soil pitches from how you bowl on red-soil pitches because the methods of taking wickets change. You get edges on red-soil pitches and they carry. Here you get more leg-before and bowled because the ball stays slightly low,” he concluded.