Rohit Sharma praised the depth and variety of his bowling unit after Team India’s dominant 280-run win over Bangladesh in the first Test in Chennai. While the fast bowlers led by Jasprit Bumrah did well in the first innings as they bowled the visitors out for 149, R. Ashwin returned to his usual form in the second to add a six-fer to his first-innings century as well.
“No matter what the conditions are, whether we play in India, whether we play outside, we want to build the team around [bowling],” Rohit Sharma said after the win. “Whatever the condition has to offer, we got to be ready for it. In the last few years, wherever we have played, we have managed to have that in our armoury, whether it is seam bowling options or spin bowling options. You have to give credit to the guys, whenever there is a responsibility, they never shy away from it and they want to put their hand up and get the job done for the team.”
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However, Chennai presented a different challenge to the bowlers on the red-soil wicket with good pace and bounce over the first two days of the Test as well. However, the spinners had to struggle initially to be successful before turn and bounce became useful on the final day. While Rohit said it was important to be patient with both bat and ball, R Ashwin, who took a six-wicket haul, offered a more detailed breakdown of the pitch’s characteristics as well.
“Look, I think this pitch, even if you bowl good balls, you will go for runs. But the bounce is going to be quite daunting,” he said. “We have lost a lot of red soil pitches over the years, which was a key component of playing Test cricket in India. And the beauty about red soil is, you put revs on it, there is value. And there is bounce. You will get hit but there is bounce. You play on some black clay surfaces around the country elsewhere without naming them, you have to do a lot of hard work. Put a lot of revs and see nothing come out of it. And sometimes, it’s better to not put revs on it in certain places. So, to even understand all these things, to begin to understand and talk about it, is a fair amount of learning for me. And it’s happened over the years. Like I said, this one’s got solid bounce. And I would anyway play on a surface like this and get hit. Then play on another surface.”
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“The beauty of playing on good surfaces like this, sometimes around the country… people do make the mistake of terming India as a whole. I actually think India has a lot of foreign soil. You go to Ranchi, it doesn’t feel like home. You sometimes go to Eden, it doesn’t feel home. You go to Dharamsala, all of a sudden, it doesn’t feel [like] home. And for some wild reason, people don’t seem to assimilate this. Because the nature of soil is different. The weather is different. Different times of the year. It’s not a country like Australia where every boxing day Test match happens at Melbourne. We don’t do that. Pongal test doesn’t happen in Chennai. So, the surfaces react very differently at different times of the year,” he again stated.
