India sealed their progress to the World Test Championship finals with a 2-1 series win over visiting Australia in the recently concluded home Border-Gavaskar trophy.
India won the first two games in Nagpur and Delhi before Australia pulled one back with their win in Indore. The final Test at Ahmedabad ended in a draw.
Indian spinner Ravichandran Ashwin, who was crucial in the series triumph over the visiting side with his 25 wickets across the four games expressed his views on the series and mentioned the impact of stand-in captain Steve Smith, who led the Aussies after Pat Cummins had to fly back home midway through the tour citing personal reasons.
“Steven Smith led the Australians in an outstanding manner under such circumstances”, Ashwin said.
“He is very creative and gets the game”, the 36-year-old heaped praise on the Australian batsman.
“We are aware of the fact that he is a great batsman, but to be a great student of the game, you need to know all the nuances”, Ashwin opined.
“He gets the game. He knows when to do what and he gets the hang of the game,” the cricketer from Chennai expressed his admiration for the Australian.
“He lead them really well in the last two Tests, be it field placement or bowling changes, he was spot on. He never let us take control in the Indore Test.”
The tricky spinner from Tamil Nadu scalped 3 wickets in the first innings of the opening game of the series in Nagpur, before claiming a 5-wicket haul in the second innings to help India to a massive by an innings and 132 runs over the visitors.
India’s winning run extended into the second game as the home side triumphed by 6 wickets in the Delhi Test. Ashwin was once again in the thick of things as he managed to dismiss 3 Australian batsmen each in the first and second innings.
The third game in Indore, proved to be beyond India’s reach as the Australians cut their series arrears by half with their memorable win spearheaded by Nathan Lyon. Yet, Ashwin managed to send three Australian batsmen to the hut in the first innings and was responsible for yet another wicket in the second innings.
Ashwin picked up his second 5-wicket haul of the BGT 2023 with another 6 wickets in the first innings of the final Test in Ahmedabad and added one more to his tally in the second innings.
India and Australia will face off against each other in the final of the WTC scheduled to begin on the 7th of June 2023.
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