Australia vs India: Michael Clarke analyses Ravi Ashwin and Nathan Lyon's performance in Adelaide

Former Australian captain Michael Clarke had an interesting exchange with renowned Indian sports journalist Boria Majumdar about India’s off-spinner Ravi Ashwin on Monday after India beat Australia in the thrilling first Test match of the Border-Gavaskar trophy 2018. The conversation involved a question asked by Boria that drew parallels between how India’s premium off-spinner fared in the series opener as opposed to Australia’s Nathan Lyon and Clarke’s answer to it.

Ashwin hasn’t had memorable achievements to his name in Australia prior to the ongoing tour and so there was an element of circumspection around his place in the playing XI for the Adelaide Test. But the team management trusted the off-spinner’s ability and gave him a go in the first game. The trust has indeed paid dividends as the 32-year old picked up six wickets, three in each innings, and played a momentous role in India historically winning the Test match.

Ashwin was superb

Boria Majumdar, after India’s victory, posted a tweet wherein Michael Clarke, one of the commentators in the ongoing series, was tagged. The tweet mentioned that Ashwin was superb in the first innings but was relatively less effective in the second innings.

Having pointed out how Australia’s Nathan Lyon on the same pitch and England’s off-spinner Moeen Ali in the Test against India at Southampton made use of the rough on the pitch created by the footmarks of bowlers, Boria asked Clarke if his (Ashwin) ineffectiveness in the second innings had anything to do with him not pitching enough balls on the rough or with the slowness of the wicket at Adelaide.

Pup, as fondly called by his former Australian team-mates, wasn’t inclined to Boria’s view as he replied to the tweet stating that the Chennai-born was impressive in both the innings. The stylish right-handed batsman further said that though Ashwin couldn’t grab as many as six wickets like Lyon did in the second innings, he was constantly putting pressure on the Australian batsmen which in turned helped India’s fast bowling trio to pick wickets from the other end.

Clarke concluded that both Lyon and Ashwin were superb in the Test match. Earlier, he also congratulated India on his Twitter handle for their victory. Besides, the 37-year old also appreciated the grit and resilience shown by the Australian batsmen in the second innings as they fought hard till the end without giving up.

Here’s the thread of the convo:

Hey mate @MClarke23 while Ash is superb in the first innings he isn’t as effective in the second. Is it because the wicket got slower and there weren’t too many balls on the rough from him? Moeen and Nathan Lyon consistently used the rough in Southampton and here.

— Boria Majumdar (@BoriaMajumdar) December 10, 2018

I thought he was very good in both innings mate- only 4x bowlers so he had to bowl a lot of overs. Even though he didn’t take 6 like Lyon he built pressure for the fast bowlers up the other end. Both spinners were 👌🏻 https://t.co/hwnihw4yPT

— Michael Clarke (@MClarke23) December 10, 2018

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~Written by Harikrishnan Sivakumar