The in-form Australia opener, Usman Khawaja has opined that the veteran Indian spinner, Ravichandran Ashwin is very skillful and has got a lot of tricky little variations, but he is ready to face the Indian spin challenge in the upcoming four-match Border Gavaskar Test series scheduled to be commencing in Nagpur on Thursday.
During a recent chat with The Sydney Morning Herald, Usman Khawaja said, “Ashwin is a gun. He’s very skillful, he’s got a lot of tricky little variations, he uses the crease quite well too. If you asked me the same question when I was younger, I probably wouldn’t have been able to answer a lot of things because I didn’t really learn about how to face what off-spinners are doing.”
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Ravichandran Ashwin has always been a threatening bowler for Australia during their last two Test tours to India. The Australians have hired Mahesh Pithiya, who has a similar bowling style to Ashwin, to ensure that they do not falter against the veteran Indian off-spinner again.
Talking about the same, Usman Khawaja said, “But it’s one of those really good challenges. The wicket’s going to turn here at some point, whether day one, day three, or day four, and he’s going to be in the game and bowl a lot of overs. So it’s all about figuring out how I’m going to play against him, how I’m going to score runs against him, what he might do. If you bat a long time against him, he’s going to change his game plans against you.”
He further added, “He’s not the kind of guy who’ll do the same thing over and over, he’s going to try to work you out. So I’m looking forward to it. Four Test matches is a long time, so hopefully I can do alright and score runs for my team, but you know what, it’s always fun. Subcontinent, playing against spin is some of the most fun you’ll have in terms of finding a way to get in and score runs, it’s quite rewarding.”
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In the build-up to their high-profile four-match Test series beginning on Thursday, Australia has been finding ways to tackle the Indian spinners, and for the same reason, they abandoned the idea of “irrelevant” tour games in India and instead trained with SG balls on specially-prepared spinning pitches in Sydney before coming to India.
