Ravichandran Ashwin highlights England’s biggest mistake in humbling series defeat

After losing the first Test of the five-match series in Hyderabad, India made an emphatic comeback, beating England 4-1 in the series. The Rohit Sharma-led side played some brilliant cricket and gave no room to the visitors, who struggled with the bat for the majority part. England’s openers Zak Crawley was a standout performer, while Ben Duckett did better than his last India series but it was the middle-order, which failed to live up to the expectations. 

Notably, ever since Ben Stokes and Brendon McCullum took over the command, the Three Lions have played an aggressive brand of cricket. It worked against the likes of South Africa, Pakistan and even Australia to some extent but in India, they had a major failure as the batters could barely read India’s spinners with Ashwin and Kuldeep Yadav wreaking havoc with the ball. Speaking about their flawed technique, Ashwin analysed that England cannot follow the same template every time they play. He explained it with the example of driving a car in India and England and stated that the visitors failed to adapt, which caused them the series.

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“Test cricket, or any other form of cricket for that matter, cannot be played like an airplane on a runway. We cannot step on the pedal and accelerate till we take off! It's the same as driving on highways. Sometimes, when I think of it, is it because of how they drive in England? Driving in England is bliss. No one comes in between. You can keep driving in the same lane. We cannot overtake on the left. They never expect unexpected things. If they see something unexpected, they crash. I have a feeling they will be very confused if they see how we drive in India,” Ashwin explained on his YouTube channel.

“In India, you cannot always drive in the fourth gear. We keep changing gears. We always keep one foot on the brake. This concept is alien to them! Crawley always gets momentum, but cannot keep it going. Bazball is about the transfer of pressure onto the opponents. But after the transfer of pressure, what happens? They should be like, ‘we have to make them pay!' If they manage to do that, then the game is on. This series would have gone their way with the inexperience we had. They had a huge chance.” Ashwin noted.

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Meanwhile, a nine-wicket haul on his centenary Test helped Ashwin reclaim the number-one ranking in ICC’s Test bowler’s list. However, his next goal would be to do well for Rajasthan Royals in the upcoming IPL 2024 in order to get into India’s squad for the T20 World Cup, which is slated to begin on June 1. He is currently not in the scheme of things but it can change if he manage to put up a brilliant show in the first half of the tournament.