Former India spinner Ravichandran Ashwin while praising India for their performance in the ongoing Test series against England, also pointed out one place where the Shubman Gill side had failed in. India are currently looking to take 4 England wickets as the hosts need just 35 runs to win on Day 5.
“India have failed in one place. So much runs on this pitch but still India find themselves in this hole. This is because bowling to build pressure is a lost art. It’s not only for India, many teams are struggling. Barring Australia, every other team struggles with this. This is called defensive pressure building. We are playing in an era of T20s where the everyone just talks about taking wickets. If you just go after wickets just like that, you will concede a lot of runs. Wickets actually falls when you build pressure and build rhythm,” Ashwin said on his YouTube show Ash Ki Baat.
“Prasidh Krishna got rhythm because Siraj bowled a maiden over and Prasidh got into a good rhythm, he was also bowling dots. We are not setting the right fields and bowling defensively at the right time. In this match also, we had a good session going into Lunch. The first 5 overs after lunch were extremely crucial. If you give 10 runs from those 5 overs, the pressure increases on the opponents. I am not saying you bowl defensive, wide outside off stump but Prasidh Krishna conceded 11 runs in the first over.”
“Offside there was a deep cover, he had 2 slips, he had a gully, he had a deep extra cover because the batter was stepping out and hitting it. He’s got a 6-3 field: Offside has 6 and leg side had 3. I love Prasidh to bits but one bowler taking 5-6 wickets won’t win you the game. As a bowling group, you need to build pressure. That is one area India have failed,” he added.
India currently are 1-2 down in the 5-match Test series and will be aiming to defeat England in the 5th and final Test to tie the series.
