Ravichandran Ashwin opens up on overcoming jet lag, adapting to Caribbean conditions and bowling prep

After the end of Day 1 between West Indies and India in Dominica, veteran off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin revealed that he was not at his best in the nets and was feeling jet-lagged. He added saying that nothing much changed on the second practice session and that it was bothering him to get adjusted to the conditions.

However, noticing certain minute things, the 36-year-old started practising on cement wickets in order to bring his arm speed back to normal. The Chennai-born cricketer mentioned that all these problems can arise after a long flight, but he eventually did his best in order to get out of that situation as Ashwin ended up picking his 33rd five-wicket haul to crush the home team in the first innings.

“I landed in Barbados, I felt a bit jet-lagged as I came from the TNPL. I felt that the shoulder, the arm speed and the body position on the crease wasn’t really ideal. The first day in Barbados, when we played on the practice surface, the nets was okay, the first day I didn’t feel okay at all. The second day I did another 8-10 overs, that was slightly better. 

“So, I just felt like that with the jet lag and the amount of workload, my shoulder rotational speed, the body going into the ball, all these things, take a certain amount of time and what happens is, sometimes, when you are playing on really slow and turning surfaces, you don’t know how much you really need to impart on the ball. So, I always on and practice on a concrete or a cement surface or an astro surface, where I don’t really have to muscle the ball. I just have to release the ball nicely and I know that’s my sweet spot,” Ashwin said after the end of the day’s play.

Notably, courtesy of Ashwin’s five-for, India managed to restrict West Indies to just 150 runs and are 70 runs behind the hosts after Day 1. Yashasvi Jaiswal and Rohit Sharma gave a perfect start with the bat and will be hoping to continue in a similar fashion to put West Indies under pressure.