Thursday, Jul 9, 2026

It was mind of the batsmen that got us wickets: Ashwin

The quality of the pitch became a subject of intense debate and former England players like Michael Vaughan mocked it for being a dust bowl

By PTI

Updated On - 16 February 2021, 06:51 PM

It was mind of the batsmen that got us wickets: Ashwin — Ravichandran Ashwin Source: Agencies

Chennai: India off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin on Tuesday asserted that more than the turning Chepauk pitch, it was the “mind of the England batsmen” that helped his team dominate the second Test here, crediting his “pace and guile” for getting the maximum out of the track.

The quality of the pitch became a subject of intense debate and former England players like Michael Vaughan mocked it for being a dust bowl. England assistant coach Graham Thorpe had termed it “challenging”.

Ashwin, who was named man-of-the-match for his match figures of 8 for 96 and a brilliant century in India’s second innings, played down the talk surrounding the pitch. England were bowled out for 164 in pursuit of 482 on Tuesday. “As much as people were predicting things from the outside, I thought the balls that was doing much wasn’t getting wickets. It was the mind of the batsmen that got us wickets,” Ashwin said but did not elaborate on his comment on the rival batsmen.

“I have been playing for years over here now and it takes pace and guile to do it. Keeping intent was very important,” he said after India’s massive 317-run win to level the four-match series 1-1.

Ashwin said he enjoyed his game in front of the home crowd as he is “aware” of the home conditions.

“Every load up gives a different result in terms of which way the pitch is behaving. I try and load up differently, use the breeze, use different angles to release the ball, speed of the run-up. This is working because I have created this awareness for myself.

“This wicket was very different to the one we played on in the first game. This was a red soil wicket, the first one was a clay wicket,” said the 34-year-old who is just six short of the 400-wicket milestone.