Ravichandran Ashwin, the Indian cricket team’s spinner, shared a message from captain Rohit Sharma that encouraged teammates to take risks – something that contributed to them winning the second Test match against Bangladesh in Kanpur on Tuesday. The games first three days were marred by rainfall as well as wet outfield rendering India in a difficult position if they have to force a result in the said encounter. Nonetheless, they managed to dismiss Bangladesh’s batsmen two times within two days and a clinical display of batting assured an easy victory to the team led by Rohit. Ashwin disclosed after that the match that Rohit had asked the team to be aggressive and assured himself that they would achieve the same in the first innings and indeed they did when scored five world records in one innings.
“Winning this game was important for us,” Ashwin mentioned.
“It was a huge victory for us in terms of WTC. We bowled them out yesterday so when that happened it was a little after lunch. Rohit was keen that we had to bowl 80 overs at them. He was okay with the point that even if we got out for 230, it’s fine. He was the first one to show up with the intent when he walked out to bat on the very first ball.”
India’s wins the 2-0 Test Series against Bangladesh at Green Park Stadium, Kanpur also enabled them to retain their undisputed leadership of the World Test Championship (WTC) points table.
The completion of the match resulted in India lifting their point percentage to a remarkable 74.24 while their opponents Bangladesh lost theirs thus placing them seventh with a 34.38 percent, rank below in the order placed South Africa and New Zealand who were in the fifth and sixth positions respectively.
After winning 8 out of 12 matches, Australia occupy the second position with a point percentage of 62.50 points, while the third and fourth positions are held by Sri Lanka and England with 55.56 and 42.19 points respectively.
“There’s more bite with the new ball as opposed to the old ball. The more you put overspin, it is difficult on this pitch because the ball does not leave the surface. I am fine with finding the groove. The revs that I put on the ball are not to be taken lightly,” Ashwin said after the match.
