According to their captain Rohit Sharma, the Indian team does not feel intimidated by the recent performances of their senior spinners R Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja. In a slow, dry Pune ground, New Zealand’s bowlers outperformed India’s spin trio, which included Washington Sundar, leading to India’s first home Test series loss since 2012.
“I mean, see look, there is too much expectation on those two guys,” Rohit remarked in reference to Jadeja and Ashwin. The expectation is that they will win Test matches for us, run through the team, and take wickets in every game they play. That’s unfair, in my opinion; it’s our collective duty to ensure that we win Test matches, not just the two men.”
Ashwin went at nearly four runs per over in the third innings in Pune after giving up 94 runs in 16 overs for only one wicket in the second innings in Bengaluru, which was his lowest economy rate numbers in a Test innings when he bowled at least ten overs.
Jadeja too found it difficult to resist New Zealand’s assertive strategy. Devon Conway, for example, continued sweeping and reverse-sweeping with offensive activity even after India posted a short third and deep point. These strokes affected the fields that Rohit had set as well as the lines and lengths of the senior spinners.
The India skipper had to arrange for additional security on the boundary at different points in time. Jadeja finished both innings with just three wickets in 37.4 overs, two less than Ashwin’s five-wicket total for the match. New Zealand left-arm fingerspinner Mitchell Santner, on the other hand, finished with 13 for 157, the third-best total of any visiting bowler in India.
Rohit said that it was normal for Ashwin and Jadeja to have bad days and declined to make any inferences from these figures.
“Of course, by their standards, they know where they stand and what they haven’t been able to do or what they haven’t done really well,” Rohit stated. But once more, they have both played a great deal of cricket here and have made significant contributions to our 18-series [victory] home winning streak. These two have been crucial to it. I won’t be delving too far into a few series, particularly those two men.
“They are aware of what occurs, and occasionally they are let to play a few poor games without expecting that I will use this as an opportunity to run through the opposition and take wickets. It won’t always happen that way. Therefore, you must be prepared to step in with the other guys as well.”
Additionally, Rohit advocated for the other spinners to share responsibility and opposed placing undue strain on Ashwin and Jadeja.
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