Ravichandran Ashwin is absolutely fine: Virat Kohli

Team India will take field against New Zealand in the second Test at Kolkata tomorrow. Though they were hit by an injury to opener Lokesh Rahul, the team has enough options and rather there is so much competition for each spot that they don’t have to look too far to find a replacement. Another concern was the corn that Ravichandran Ashwin had on his finger but that is believed to not come in way of Ashwin talking field at Kolkata.

Ahead of the game Indian Test skipper Virat Kohli was talking to the media and when asked about his thoughts on the wicket of the Eden Gardens he said, “Yes, I’ve seen the wicket. No comments on the wicket for now. We’ve got all the bases covered as far the team is concerned. It looks like a normal wicket that we expect at Eden Gardens. The surface is pretty nice, it has a little bit of grass covering. It should be a good wicket to bat on.”

The surface looks good for batting and that makes a case for the team to opt back for the 5-bowler strategy. So will they play the same combination or change it? Virat was also asked about Ashwin’s injury to which he said, “Yes Ashwin is absolutely fine. Combinations, obviously I can’t speak about yet. The pitch looks good. As a home side if we feel we are able to put big runs on the board, that obviously puts pressure on the opposition, regardless of the wicket we are playing on. I felt that even in the last game we had a chance of getting 400-plus, but we didn’t capitalise. Those are the things we want to correct. Once you have a big score on the board, the opposition feels they have to work that extra bit or bat a session and a half more than they would like to. That gives you an advantage in the game.”

There were media reports that off-spinner Jayant Yadav was picked as a replacement for Ishant Sharma since Ashwin wasn’t sure of his participation in the coming Test. The skipper when asked about the same said the rookie offie was not in as a cover but because they wanted to add another spinner in the attack.

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“Jayant is not there as a cover. Ishant (Sharma) would have started the first game had he been fit. We have three quicks already and we felt we don’t need anymore. We thought of adding another off-spinner because they have five left-handers in their line-up. This would help at some stage when we plan to play three spinners. Maybe, two off-spinners could play together. That was the whole idea bringing in another guy who can bowl at the left-handers. Left-arm spinner we have… leg-spinner we have. So someone, along with Ashwin, would do the same job in case we require two (off-spinners) against the five left-handers.” Kohli added.