Had a weird feeling that Jennings would perform well, says Ashwin

Mumbai: R. Ashwin, who took four wickets on Day One of the fourth Test against England, underlined his status as India’s lead bowler as Alastair Cook’s side were restricted to 288/5 at Wankhede Stadium on Thursday.

Ashwin, who had only one wicket wicket till tea, struck thrice in the final session, denying England a chance to be in the driving seat.

“The rewards for the spell came from what I did in the afternoon because I thought that I bowled really well to (Keaton) Jennings and Moeen Ali and got (Joe) Root out in that spell,” Ashwin said at stumps.

“That was one of the better spells of the day and I got rewards as soon as I came back in the third spell.

“Generally, Wankhede has always been a bat first and score big kind of a venue. So, we knew we were up against the odds. Generally, there is some moisture early in the morning and we wanted to capitalise on it. Unfortunately, we could not. But the afternoon session was not all that bad. We gave away 90-odd runs and got Root.”

Ashwin also said length was crucial for spinners on a track like Wankhede’s. “For spinners, it’s always length, it is not so much line, it is very easy to bowl outside off and fire it in, but length is very important. If you can be very consistent with your length, you can vary the line, that’s where the caught and bowled dismissal comes into play for an off-spinner. So I think it is more about length rather than line,” said Ashwin.

“I must say, I worked that dismissal (Root’s) in my head, because he has got out a lot of times in the slips. In the last three Test matches, he nicked one in Vizag, I thought he nicked one and it was reviewed and turned over, but he has a tendency to nick spinners to the slip cordon.

“I saw him nick Dane Piedt in South Africa, he has done it quite a few times to Nathan Lyon as well. This is one of the wickets where actually edges do carry to slips, so I was just mentally working it over and it happened,” Ashwin said on Root’s dismissal.

Asked about Karun Nair’s dropped catch off Jennings, a sharp chance at gully that would have cut short the debutant’s innings at zero, and India’s overall fielding performance in the series, Ashwin said, “We can’t be hard on those catches. I think those were less than 50-50. We’ll have to give it to them. Yes we have put down a few catches in the series including me, but I think those cannot really count on chances, we have taken them brilliantly.”

Ashwin was also full of praise for Jennings’ 112-run knock on debut.