India National Cricket Team star off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin has shared his bold take on the comments made by the veteran England National Cricket Team pacer James Anderson about chasing down a target of 600 against India National Cricket Team in the second Test in Vizag.
England were filled with confidence after pulling off a stunning victory against India National Cricket Team in the first of the recently concluded five-match Test series in Hyderabad. The first Test win led to the English players underestimating the Indian team and the English pacer Anderson even went on to claim that they would chase 600 runs in Vizag Test.
On Day 3 of the second Test, India set a target of 399 runs for England to chase. The English batters did a decent job on the third day as they played positive cricket and finished the day at 67 at the loss of one wicket in 14 overs.
“The chat last night from the coach (Brendon McCullum) was that if they get 600, we were going to go for it. It makes it very clear to everyone that we will try to do it tomorrow. I know there are 180 overs left in the game, but we will try to do it in 60 or 70. That’s the way we play, and we saw that tonight with Rehan (Ahmed) going out and playing his shots,” Anderson had said.
However, England faced a hammering against Rohit Sharma & Co. as the batters were unable to survive against the dominant Indian bowling unit and they lost by 106 runs to level the series 1-1.
He told the press that even if the 4th innings target was 500 or 600, we’ll finish it in 60 overs – Ravichandran Ashwin
In a video shared on his official YouTube channel, Ravichandran Ashwin talked about Anderson’s comments and said that he went too far.
“James Anderson went into a press conference in the second Test after winning the first considerably well. Much respect to them for winning that. He told the press that even if the 4th innings target was 500 or 600, we’ll finish it in 60 overs. Even though it was an example of their positive mindset, it felt like they had gone too far,” Ashwin said.
Ravichandran Ashwin also shared his views on the Bazball approach of England and made a big revelation. Ashwin was blunt in his verdict as he said that the English batters avoid defensive cricket because of the fear of getting out. He expressed his surprise over Joe Root agreeing to play Bazball despite having a solid defense technique.
“The one thing I understood after the first Test is that Bazball isn’t just aggressive cricket. It is defenseless cricket. They aren’t going to play a defensive shot at all. They are going to get out if they play defence. To my surprise, Joe Root also agreed to their game plan. Because if you take world cricket’s vest defence rankings, Root is an easy number 1 on that list against spin. He also bought into their approach,” the 37-year-old said.
In the end, the India National Cricket Team made a sensational comeback in the five-match Test series and crushed the Ben Stokes-led England by 4-1. This was the first-ever Test series loss of England under captain Ben Stokes and head coach Brendon McCullum.
