India have an embarrassment of spin riches and captain Rohit Sharma has no qualms admitting he often finds himself spoilt for choice, as in the opening Test against Australia. India’s three-pronged spin attack mauled Australia to secure a comprehensive victory by an innings and 132 runs inside three days of the series opener in Nagpur on Saturday.
Ravichandran Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja and Axar Patel collectively claimed 16 of the 20 Australian wickets in the match on a track where the ball kept low and spun unpredictably. Jadeja and Patel also smashed half-centuries, proving the pitch was difficult but certainly not unplayable.
“The conditions are there for everyone, but to come out and extract something from the pitch is what makes them really, really special,” Rohit said of his spin attack after Saturday’s victory.
“They’ve played on pitches like this a lot, so they know exactly what to do, which areas to hit, and how to keep applying that pressure, setting the field right.” But with each of them keen to bowl, especially when approaching some personal milestone, the task often gets tricky.
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“That is the challenge I’m facing at the moment with these guys, because I really don’t know too much about milestones but these guys are quite aware of it,” quipped the opener, who smashed the only century of the match in Nagpur. On a more serious note, Rohit said match-ups governed his selection of spinner at any stage of the game.
“Ash has a good match-up against left-handers, not that he can’t get right-handers out, but he’s got a great match-up against left-handers,” he said of off-spinner Ashwin.
“Ravindra Jadeja and Axar have an unbelievable match-up against right-handers, so I try and keep those things in my mind while trying to rotate the three of them.”
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