Boring lines need to be bowled: Ravichandran Ashwin

The nature of the wickets in the Caribbean has become slower and slower over the course of time. The tracks were quite lively in behaviour during the heydeys of the West Indies cricket in the 70s and 80’s. However, things have changed drastically nowadays as the wickets have become more conducive to spin bowling than seam and swing.

India’s premier spinner Ravichandran Ashwin will face new sort of challenge when he will come out to bowl on the slowish tracks. Ashwin seems to be ready to bowl “boring lines all day” during the upcoming four-Test series against the West Indies.

“I am looking forward to the game (warm-up game). It will be challenging with the kind of heat and the wicket that are there. Watching the last game, I felt that the wickets were pretty slow. It was a bit of a challenge. I am sure I will have a long haul. I may have to bowl boring lines, chugging away all day long,” Ashwin told bcci.tv today.

The off-spinner was rested during the first warm-up game against WICB Presidents XI but is ready to get back into action in the final three-day game starting on Thursday. He feels that one needs to be patient as there will be partnerships on these tracks.

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“It will be the first breakthrough that will be important and results will then come faster. The West Indies team looks a pretty good side with a lot of all-rounders. Even during the last match, we saw Mishy (Amit Mishra) bowling 15-16 overs before getting the first wicket and then went on to get a few more. The bounce is not there, so boring lines need to be bowled.”

Ashwin said that he is happy to be the leader of the bowling attack, something he relishes.

“I take pride in being the leader of the pack. There are a lot of challenges and advantages. The team will look towards me to deliver and with that comes pressure. I have always maintained that pressure is something that I play for,” he added.