Sanjay Bangar: It is brilliant to see Ashwin play at No.6

Indian team’s batting coach Sanjay Bangar has heaped praise on Ravichandran Ashwin after the off-spinner stemmed the fall of wickets guiding India to a safe overnight score of 234/5 after the top-order  failed to get  going in the first innings.  West Indies had elected to bowl after winning the toss at Gros Islet, and quickly stung India by removing Shikhar Dhawan,Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma while KL Rahul and Ajinkya Rahane failed to build on good starts. Ashwin who got promoted to No 6, was the saviour for India with a patient knock of 75 not-out.

Speaking about the Tamilnadu off-spinner’s performance, Bangar said, "It is just his 3rd innings at No 6 and he has never batted there before the start of this series, so it is just brilliant to see. He is someone we knew had a great potential with the bat but never did so at No 6. Plus having the knowledge that he is someone who started off as a top-order batsman at the start of his career and contributed immensely for his state team as well," reported PTI.

"So it gives us options and the type of contribution the lower order is making, puts us in a confidence position whenever the team finds itself in a tight corner," said the former Indian all-rounder.

The batting coach also went on to praise Wriddhiman Saha’s valiant effort in stemming the flow of the game for India with an unbeaten 46.

"Saha got a 40-odd in both the Tests and he has been making contributions in the lower-order against Sri Lanka and South Africa as well. He has been a fabulous team player and is willing to do anything required of him. And he has consistently proved that he is a good enough player to contribute consistently," he said.

Despite a terrible show from the Indian top-order raising questions on the team selection, Bangar has labelled the overall performance of the team as “satisfactory”.

“I think it is quite a challenging Test wicket and not easy for the batsmen to straight away play their strokes. They have to be very watchful and play the ball under their eye. It was seaming a bit and it was stopping a bit as well. It was a very challenging wicket for the first day for batting, and overall I am very satisfied with the batting effort” he added.