Indian spinners Ravichandran Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja went for plenty in the final of ICC Champions Trophy 2017 against Pakistan. Ashwin, who was drafted in the playing for the semi-final against Bangladesh, looked completely out of colour on a good batting wicket at The Oval. He bowled 10 overs and gave 70 runs for no wicket. He didn’t have any control on the ball and Pakistani batsmen, specially Fakhar Zaman went after him on almost every delivery.
During the post match press conference, Indian captain Virat Kohli was asked about Ashwin’s performance in the game. And this is how he replied.
Q: For a bowler like Ashwin, white ball cricket, like do you think as a technical person he needs to revisit his plans when he’s bowling with two new balls on flat decks, especially when it’s a challenge for spinners? Do you think — what is your take as captain?
Kohli: Every spinner has challenges on flat decks, even every spinner could go for runs like when Hardik started hitting today, although the late spinner was bowling well, he could still travel for runs. You can’t really sit and pinpoint these things in white ball cricket, especially on wickets like these where if a batsman gets going, it really becomes difficult for the spinner and people are slogging across the line and getting away with it.
You can’t really do much as a spinner because you’re making them play where you want to play, but still, they are executing those shots. There’s only so much you can do as a bowler, I feel, watching from the sideline, and then you have to accept that, yes, this was a high-risk shot and I can accept getting hit for 4 on a short like that. It’s not humanly possible to not concede boundaries and sixes. You have to understand whether you made the batsman hit where you wanted him to hit and take a risk, or you have bowled a bad ball. I think that’s the only analysis a person needs to do and nothing more.
