India’s Test specialist, Ravichandran Ashwin, during a recent interaction, has revealed how his captain Virat Kohli chose ‘PlayStation’ over plotting dismissal of David Warner, during the 2017 Bengaluru Test match.
In the game at Chinnaswamy stadium, Australian off-spinner Nathan Lyon ran ruckus into the Indian lineup by picking up wickets on Day 1 of the Test match.
Indians were bundled out for a paltry total of 189, and the onus was then on the likes of Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja to do the bulk of the wicket-taking.
“Virat was playing PlayStation with Saha and I went to his room and said, ‘Virat, I think what’s happening is Nathan Lyon got wickets in the first innings and the wicket was damp so somehow there is this sense of people coming in and saying that Lyon got wickets and hence Ash should get wickets and we’ll roll them over,” Ashwin told Cricbuzz.
“But I want to be in my own cocoon, where I can take this game forward the way I want. I think I want to go over the wicket to David Warner even if it sounds defensive. We need to put this game on pause mode, literally pause this game without Australia wresting the initiative. And I think both Warner and Renshaw have practised a lot of balls for off-spinners coming from around the stumps. So I want to change this game,” explained Ashwin further.
After listening to Ashwin’s plans for about a minute, Virat resumed his game on PlayStation and told him he has full belief in him, asking to do whatever he wants.
The following day Ashwin eventually picked the wicket of Warner and Mitchell Starc in the first innings while Jadeja picked six wickets, to pull India back into the game.
In the second innings, Ashwin turned out to the hero with a six-wicket haul, helping India win by 75 runs.
“He listened to my idea for a minute, started playing the game and said, ‘Do what you want, I have complete belief in you.’ And the next day I started bowling over the stumps. How David Warner got out in the first innings in Bangalore, where he got bowled – I moved over the stumps and started hitting the rough, and he got bowled,” concluded Ashwin.
