Moments after Chennai boys — one by birth and the other a Super King, rescued India with an sparkling seventh-wicket unbroken 195-run partnership against Bangladesh, centurion Ravichandran Ashwin relished the feeling of scoring a second successive hundred in front of his home crowd at the MA Chidambaram Stadium here.
In seven innings at this venue in Tests, Ashwin now has two hundreds and another fifty-plus score.
“Always a special feeling to play in front of the home crowd. This is a ground I completely love to play cricket in. It’s given me a lot of wonderful memories. The last time I got a hundred, you were the coach Ravi bhai (Ravi Shastri). It does feel special,” Ashwin said after stumps, referring to his knock of 106 against England in February 2021.
Ashwin has been a dependable lower order batter for India over the years, with two of his centuries coming away from home (West Indies). The 38-year-old revealed that he continued to work on his batting before the start of India’s home Test season.
“It helps that I have come back at the back of a T20 tournament (TNPL), worked quite a bit on my batting. Of course, I have always been wafting my bat around outside off-stump. Worked on a few things and on a surface like this with a bit of spice, if you’re going after the ball, might as well go after it really hard like Rishabh (Pant) does. It’s an old Chennai surface with a bit of bounce and carry. The red soil pitch allows you to play a few shots if you are willing to just get in line and give it a bit of a tonk when there’s width,” he said.
The seasoned off-spinner also hailed his long-term spin ally Ravindra Jadeja, who equally contributed with an unbeaten 86 in the partnership to propel India to 339 for 6 at stumps on the opening day of the first Test.
“Jadeja was of real help, there was a point where I was sweating and tiring but Jaddu helped me through that phase. He’s been solid and one of our best batters in the last few years. He told me we don’t have to convert twos into threes, which helped me immensely,” he said.
Ashwin, who has grown up playing at the venue, predicted that there will still be enough assistance for the seamers as the Test heads into its second day on Friday.
“It’s a typical, old-fashioned Chennai pitch where overspin will fetch a bit of bounce. The wicket will start doing its tricks much later in the game. There’s enough in it for the quicks, good carry, good bounce if we present the seam nice and hard. The new ball will do a bit, there’ll be some help for the bowlers, we’ll have to start afresh tomorrow. There’s a bit in the pitch, it’s still damp underneath, so hopefully as it dries out, it quickens up,” Ashwin signed off.