India vs New Zealand: Virat Kohli sets the record right on R Ashwin, pitches

JUST MINUTES earlier Indian captain Virat Kohli had spoken about how R Ashwin was ‘key’ to his team’s success and its ascent to the top of the ratings. Suddenly he was put on the spot and asked to respond to a blatant call made against the pitches that India have been playing Test cricket on of late by an active Indian cricketer. Harbhajan Singh had tweeted a day earlier about how he and Indian coach Anil Kumble could have taken a lot more wickets if they’d played on the kind of pitches that have been on view over the last ‘four years’.

“Who made that statement?” he said at first. When informed that it was Harbhajan, who was part of the Indian squad as recently as the Asia Cup, he went, “Oh? Okay.”

Kohli then went on to defend his spinners and insisted that you still had to turn the ball on a turning pitch. Though neither Harbhajan nor the journalist who posed the query on Tuesday directly brought up Ashwin’s name it was evident who both had been directed at.

“See even if it is a turning pitch you have to bowl well. There is no… spin doesn’t happen only off the pitch. Spin is about how many revs you impart off the shoulder first. And then the ball will do something off the pitch,” he said.

Ashwin finished with 27 wickets eventually in the series and presently sits with 220 victims in his 39 Tests, which is more than any bowler in history at this stage of their career. In Indore he finished with both his best innings and match hauls in Tests, and ended up with the man-of-the-series award. Ravindra Jadeja finished with 14 wickets at 24.07, the second-most in the series. The Kiwi spinners in comparison struggled and were ineffective. Mitchell Santner finished with 10 wickets at 52.40 after three matches and Jeetan Patel, who was flown in after Mark Craig picked up an injury, picked up six wickets at 48.66. And Kohli did bring up the discrepancy in the spinners’ performances from both teams.

“I quite clearly remember after we lost to New Zealand in the World T20, suddenly their spinners were quality and we were found out. I don’t see anyone talking about that now. The same spinners have played. Why have they not been able to pick wickets? It is as simple as that,” he said.

“Our fast bowlers picked wickets everywhere. We never complained about anything. So… see you can give a guy a cement track to bat on. He [still] needs to have the mindset to score runs. It is as simple as that,” he added.

Having seen off New Zealand, India now brace up for England first followed by Australia. And Ashwin already looks on target to be close to 300 Test victims if he keeps going at this rate. “He’s been a champion. I hope he can keep going through this long home season and keep the team at the top where we are,” said Kohli. He also made it a point to bring up the fact that the pitches for the second and third Tests hadn’t been rank-turners. “We just wanted to express ourselves the way we can on a cricket field. We finished two games in four days on perfectly fine Test cricket pitches. That gives us a lot of confidence,” he said.

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