Jonny Bairstow hopeful of tackling Ravi Ashwin in the fourth innings

No.1 Test bowler Ravichandran Ashwin stormed back to form with yet another five-wicket haul in the 2nd Test against England at Vizag, but wicket-keeper batsman Jonny Bairstow is optimistic that the visitors will be able to handle the Indian offie in the fourth innings. It was Ashwin’s brilliant spell that enabled the hosts to dismiss England cheaply after Ben Stokes and Bairstow had frustrated the Indians in the morning session with a century partnership. Ashwin finished with 5/67 as India took a massive 200 run lead to set up a winning platform.

“We have played him well to be honest. He bowled nicely today but the accuracy he bowls with is something that is a challenge. Every world class spinner has accuracy and that is probably his main asset, his pace variation is something that is going to be a challenge,” Bairstow, who chipped in with a useful 53 in the first innings, said after the day’s play.

“In that first Test we played him nicely. He did bowl nicely, we know going into the fourth innings we can play Ashwin well,” he said, recalling the 1st Test at Rajkot when the off-spinner went for plenty.

Bairstow and Stokes were going great guns in the morning session taking the visitor’s total to 190/5 from a precarious 80/5 before folding out for 255 in the 2nd session. Ashwin got his first wicket of the day in the 2nd session and was quick to wrap up the English tail. It was also his maiden five-wicket haul against England.

India finished Day 3 on 98/3, stretching their lead to 298 and it would require a monumental effort from the visitors to make a match out of it.

“I think it’s important for us to try and make it as difficult as possible for India to score runs at a rate they want to score. The longer we can delay the amount of runs they score, puts us in a better position. We will try our hardest in the morning session to restrict the amount of runs and try to take a few wickets. Definitely it will be hard on the pitch with our bowlers.”

“When we bat whenever it may be there’s uneven bounce on the pitch. We will try to chase down whatever is set. We got to be still positive. At the end of the day, it’s still the run chase. That’s the exciting part of it however, many that may be,” the wicket-keeper batsman said about England’s survival plan.

Bairstow, who has been in a rich vein of form conceded that he liked batting with Ben Stokes as both of them complemented each other well.

“We complement each other being left and right. We rotate the strike pretty well. It’s just comb of everything that seems to work nicely,” he said.

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“We are pretty happy with the way Ben and I played and then (Adil) Rashid chipped in. Coming at the end, I thought he played really nicely. We needed to show a little more fight in rest of the game be it in the first or fourth innings.”

“The fight comes in many different ways, be it with the bat, ball or field. Me as a keeper I’m always looking for guys to be in right position. I think we showed some nice fight today and taking three in the evening session was a strong comeback within today’s passage of play,” said Bairstow.

Speaking about his freakish injury while walking out to bat in the morning session, Bairstow said, “I tripped up, made myself look like a wally I hurt my knee a bit so I turned round and went back for some treatment. My boot got lodged in the turf and just meant that I twisted a bit but I should be alright.

“It was sore, don’t get me wrong, but it was one of those things and didn’t affect me too much. It was just a pain in the backside or rather the knee”, concluded the highest run getter in Test cricket in 2016