Offie R Ashwin feels cheated with Wankhede wicket

Seventeen wickets so far in his debut series including four in the ongoing Test against the West Indies is some indication of Ravichandran Ashwin going great guns.

Offie R Ashwin feels cheated with Wankhede wicket

Seventeen wickets so far in his debut series including four in the ongoing Test against the West Indies is some indication of Ravichandran Ashwin going great guns.

Ravichandran Ashwin toils away at the Wankhede Stadium yesterday.
Pic/Suresh KK

But he doesn't want to think in terms of numbers. "Wickets are a result of persistent good bowling. It has been a good series for me so far, but I never set goals in terms of numbers. Sometimes, numbers don't reflect what you have done," said the offie, who had figures of four for 154 at the end of the second day's play yesterday.

He didn't want to read too much into his good showing. "Yes, wickets boost confidence, but as far as I am concerned, I will look at the profit and not the wickets. Yesterday (on Tuesday), I bowled well but didn't get enough success. So my hard work didn't reflect what I had done through the day," the Chennai off-spinner said.

His take on the Wankhede track was simple. "For a spinner, I cannot expect to get turn from the wicket on the first day itself. But there was hardly anything in the wicket. I felt cheated as it was tipped to be a true wicket. The second day wicket was more like a first-day one," he felt.

Concentration
He made it clear that his job is to take wickets and would concentrate only on that no matter how the track behaved. "Yesterday (Tuesday) I bowled 26 overs and that too on a first-day wicket. On this track, you have to bowl long spells and cannot complain. If I bowl well, I will get wickets," he said.

Ashwin, however, praised Darren Bravo's strategy. "Since there wasn't too much bounce in the wicket, he just made sure that ball doesn't hit the pads and kept on blocking which was a good ploy," he felt.u00a0 Bravo scored a wondrous 166 (17x4).

Asked whether India would be able push for win considering West Indies are already 575-9, Ashwin wanted to take this match like a Ranji Trophy outing. "In Ranji Trophy the team aims for a first innings lead and then a win. Same here. We will first have to surpass their total and then think of winning the match," he said.