India’s veteran wicket-keeper bat Dinesh Karthik showered praise on Ravichandran Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja after India registered a thumping win of an innings and 132 runs in the first Test match against Australia at the VCA Stadium, Nagpur on Saturday.
The experienced spin duo scalped a total of 15 wickets in the Test match to help India take a 1-0 lead in the four-match series. Jadeja took a five-wicket haul (5-47) in the first innings whereas Ashwin followed suit in the second dig.
In fact, Australia was skittled out for only 91 runs in the second essay after Ashwin (5-37) registered his 31st five-wicket haul in Test matches. Jadeja took a total of seven wickets whereas Ashwin took eight wickets and the veteran duo breathed down the neck of the Australian batters.
Jadeja and Ashwin made the most of their experience and bowled in the right channel to reap their rewards. Furthermore, Ashwin scored 23 runs whereas Jadeja contributed 70 runs.
Dinesh Karthik said on Cricbuzz, “What was really good to see was that both (Ravichandran Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja) of them stood true to what they are good at,” he said. “Jadeja cleaning up the right-handers in the first innings and causing a lot of trouble for the left-handers in the second innings.”
On the other hand, Karthik also showered praise on the pace duo of Mohammed Siraj and Mohammed Shami.
“Mohammed Shami bowled brilliantly to finish the tail, he added. “Also, let’s not forget what happened at the start of the first day when Mohammed Siraj bowled a beautiful spell upfront, and that set the tone I felt. Getting a wicket in the second over is always great in a Test series coming in.”
Karthik, who is doing his first commentary stint in India, also hailed the Indian batters for scoring 400 runs in the first innings and applying themselves on a difficult pitch.
“Credit to the Indian bowlers,” Karthik elaborated. “Great bowling by the spin twins, but most importantly, we should stand up and applaud how well the batters applied themselves.
“Rohit Sharma at the start, Ravindra Jadeja in the middle, and then Axar Patel showing his class with the bat. Axar made sure to take it to the part where the Australians get hurt mentally more than anything else.”
The second Test match will be played in Delhi from Friday onwards.
