In all conditions, Ashwin + Chepauk = magic

Posted by author September 19, 2024 Cricket

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It’s lunch. The crowd is quiet. Maybe even bored. A bunch of them have come wearing Virat Kohli shirts. The silence when he fell is already in talks to get a guest spot on the next Quiet Place movie. Someone steps out of the Indian dressing room and begins walking on the field. That’s it. Just putting one foot in front of the other. People have been doing that since before the stone age. But it is enough to shoo the sombre straight off this morning.

R Ashwin doesn’t need to do much to make this place come alive.

It’s nearly stumps. India’s score has been given a touch-up, from 34 for 3 to 329 for 6, and those same Kohli jerseys are up off their seats, swarming against the railings, phones out, horns blaring.

Ashwin is on strike. Ninety-nine not out. He clips one of the easier balls he’s had to face for a single, in conditions that are, to put it mildly, not usual for the start of a new Test season in India. Fast bowlers have taken five of the six wickets that have fallen, and they have found sideways movement all through the 80 overs of play. This is not a day for the spinner. But it does become a day for India’s greatest spin-bowling pair. Ashwin punches Ravindra Jadeja’s gloves on his way to the other end as the applause flows uninterrupted.

India were 144 for 6 when Ashwin came in to bat. Bangladesh had let some of their good work slip in the morning session but weren’t quite so generous now. There was pressure from both ends. Hasan Mahmud’s skill at getting the red ball to nip both ways had catapulted him into rarefied space occupied only by Dale Steyn. From 2006, for almost two decades, the South African had been the only visiting seamer to pick up four or more wickets on the first day of a Test match in India. This was not a day for the spinner. Ashwin got on top of a 142kph Nahid Rana delivery and punched it hella smoothly in front of point to move from 1 to 5. This was already his day.

There aren’t a lot of centuries by Indian batters from No. 8 and lower. Only 19. And of those, only two had faced worse odds. Harbhajan Singh made 115 after walking in with the score on 65 for 6 against New Zealand in 2010, and Ashwin himself made 106 after walking in with the score 106 for 6 against England in 2021. It is remarkable that he pulled off this rescue act while looking like he was having a net. He was in control of 86% of the balls he faced even while scoring over half his runs in boundaries. He just has this feel for conventional attacking shots.

There were some chart-toppers here. One – an imperious, on-the-up cover drive off Mahmud – quickly erased the fact that he could’ve been dismissed the previous ball. Another – a cheeky little upper cut off Nahid Rana – had similar effect, supplanting any memory of how he couldn’t get out of the way of a previous bouncer from Taskin Ahmed. Two were shots that he had paid particular attention to in the week leading up to the game – sweeps. One went for six, the other for four. When the host broadcaster asked him about all this positivity, Ashwin said, “it helps that I’ve come off the back of a T20 tournament. Worked quite a bit on my batting and playing a few shots and of course, I’ve always been wafting my bat around outside off stump, not giving it a full monty, but on a surface like this with a bit of spice, if you’re going after the ball, might as well go after it really hard.”

India’s lower-middle order has been the difference in several Test matches, helping them preserve an impeccable home record over the last 12 years. So the dressing room was pretty chill, none more so than the captain, Rohit Sharma who took in part of the action while lying down on the floor.

It is learnt that neither the BCCI nor the team management had asked for seamer-friendly surfaces for this series, even though they are facing the prospect of five massive Tests in Australia at the end of the season. Still, the local officials were quite deliberate in preparing this pitch, hiding it from the heat which has reached levels never before seen in Chennai in the month of September. The only time it was exposed to the elements was when it was being watered. It seems they felt, really strongly, that India would be well served having recent experience of playing against a red ball that refused to stop jagging about. #KnowledgableChennaiGroundstaff.

Ashwin couldn’t have been happier for the way he had been tested. “I think it’s the old Chennai surface with a bit of bounce and carry. The red-soil pitch allows you to play a few shots. If you’re willing to get in line and sort of, whenever there’s width, if you can give it a bit of a tonk, it really helps. I love playing when there is bounce and carry so yeah, really enjoyed myself today.”

Two partnerships took India to 339 for 6 and both of them stood out for how there was no thought of taking a backward step. Yashasvi Jaiswal represented that quite literally by walking at Mahmud – from a starting position well in front of his crease too – to force the bowler to shorten his length and deny him the movement he was so adept at getting. Rishabh Pant looked extraordinary for time he was out there. He was sent in ahead of KL Rahul to present Bangladesh with a new challenge, bowling at two left-handers after they had made short work of three right-handers. India were in strife but they were switched all the way on and that made a big difference.

By the end, Ashwin and Jadeja were scoring at nearly a run a ball, feasting on the kind of bowling that was never going to trouble anybody on day one of this pitch – spin. India actually scored more than a third of their total (127) against Mehidy Hasan Miraz and Shakib Al Hasan even though they bowled a little more than one-fourth of the overs (29). Another example of their sharpness despite being under the pump.

The Chennai crowd was ecstatic. At 38 years old, it is uncertain if Ashwin will play another Test in front of them. He had his family here. His friends were here. He saluted all of them when he reached his century – first the dressing room – and then to all corners. He averages 55.16 at this ground. His home ground. That’s not far off Sunil Gavaskar and way better than Rahul Dravid, VVS Laxman, Dilip Vengsarkar and Mohammad Azharuddin. This was always going to be his day, two days after his birthday.