India’s veteran spinner Ravichandran Ashwin expressed optimism that he can control things once he has the bat and ball in the middle. The all-rounder played a vital knock of 42 runs against Bangladesh in the second Test match at Dhaka in the run-chase of 145 runs.
The visitors were in a pickle situation as they were tottering at 74-7 in the fourth innings. However, Ashwin along with Shreyas Iyer were able to get India over the line. Iyer also scored a crucial knock of 29 runs and the duo added a fine alliance of 71 runs to bail their team out of the trouble.
Furthermore, Ashwin scalped a total of six wickets and thus he was awarded the Player of the match for his fine performance with both bat ball.
When Ashwin was asked if he was nervous when he went out to bat, he said while talking to Cricbuzz, “Oh no. It was just my day.”
“I went and sat outside (of the dressing room), so I had no idea (what was happening inside). I am a nervous watcher of others’ batting but once I have the ball or bat I always believe I can control things.”
On the other hand, Ashwin also heaped praise on Shyer Iyer for handling the situation with a sedate approach.
“It was one of those games where we let the game drift whenever we could have shut it off. Shreyas batted beautifully. Sometimes in these situations you feel like you have to get ahead of things, they bowled good lines and I felt that we didn’t trust our defences enough. Loved the way Shreyas batted,” he told the host broadcaster.
Ashwin added he doesn’t like to throw the towel and he always likes to fight it out in the middle.
“I don’t like to go down without a fight. I have always put myself in tough situations from the age of 8. So I try and fight every single day and I don’t like to lose like every member of my team. These are the two occasions where I came out on the right side,” he said adding, “So glad.”
Ashwin will play a crucial role for the four-match Test series against Australia in the home conditions.
