The Indian Test specialist Cheteshwar Pujara is expecting a strong performance from India’s premier off-spinner, Ravichandran Ashwin in the upcoming Test series against Australia as he reckons that the spinner has added to his bag of tricks with a few technical adjustments. India will lock horns with Australia in a four-Test series, starting on December 6.
However, Ashwin’s numbers in Australia is quite indifferent as he has picked 21 wickets at an average of 54.71 in six Tests – a record that is underwhelming when compared to his overall Test statistics of 336 wickets at 25.44. Despite those numbers, Pujara backed his teammate saying his stint in county cricket has helped him regain confidence. Ashwin played for Worcestershire earlier this year with decent results.
Describing his point, Pujara said, “I always say he is a clever bowler, he reads the batsmen really well. I think he has made a lot of changes. I can’t describe what it is, but he has made some adjustments which have helped him. He also has played some county cricket, enough cricket in England, which is obviously overseas, different conditions, not much help for spinners. So when he plays in Australia, he knows what he has to do, he also has played a series in 2014-15, so he is very confident now and whatever adjustment he had to make, he has already done.”
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When asked about the concerns of the Indian batting-order and its over-reliance on an in-form skipper Virat Kohli, Pujara insisted there is no extra pressure on the line-up despite losses to England and South Africa.
Replying to the same, Pujara said, “It’s always about batting as a unit. When you go out there you want to perform to best of your ability rather than thinking whether there is extra pressure or not. We have some goals as a batting unit. I don’t think there is any pressure on the batting unit. Most of our batters are experienced enough. So we trust our preparation and ability.”
On the individual goals for the series, Pujara said the experience of playing the last series against Australia in 2016-17 will help his batting. He also talked about India’s current pace attack and the rich bench strength was probably due to the Indian Premier League.
Pujara explained, “Even when it comes to bench strength, if a couple of our fast bowlers are injured, they will have some backup. When it comes to fast bowling this is probably one of the best attacks we have in many years. We have been playing good cricket outside India now and this is a very good opportunity for the team to perform well. Being the number one Test team, we always look to win each and every series, and this is no different. We definitely want to win this series but will take one Test at a time.”
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Whenever there is an India-Australia series, more often than not, an on-field heated exchange took place in the past series. But after the ball-tampering bans on Steve Smith and David Warner, many former cricketers have spoken about bringing a change in Australia’s team culture.
Talking about the fact that visitors aren’t bothered about the sledging, the veteran batsman said, “I cannot comment on what Australia will do. As for sledging, I cannot say what happens when we start off playing the first Test. But one thing we are sure about is playing competitive cricket. When the Test starts, if it happens, it happens; we are not very focused on it. We are focused on playing good cricket and winning the series.”
On Monday, Team India didn’t train, with the exception of Ashwin and Rohit Sharma who showed up to practice. Talking about the same, Pujara said, the trainer and physio have been monitoring the workload so depending on that we thought it is best to take a break and train for the next two days and be fresh for the Test match.
