Ashwin claims Joe Root's wicket was a plan that worked like a charm

12/08/2016

R Ashwin has claimed that the Indian team had prepared a plan to claim the wicket of Englishman Joe Root for the fourth Test in Mumbai. The Tamil Nadu spinner was also pleased with his bowling spell after tea in which he claimed three out of the four dismissals he had on the day.

"I must say, I reworked that dismissal in my head, because he has got out a lot of times in the slips. In the last three Test matches, we have played, he nicked one in Vizag, I thought he nicked one and it was reviewed over and turned over," Ashwin said during the post match conference.

"But he has got a tendency to nick spinners to the slip cordon. I saw him nick Dane Peidt in South Africa. He has done it quite a few times to Nathon Lyon as well. So I was just imagining. On the first day first day, this is one of the wickets out of the 4 Tests matches, where actually edges do carry to slips, so I was just mentally working it over and it happened, the satisfaction was palpable."

Ashwin also said that the Wankhede pitch was similar to the one where India succumbed to a defeat in 2012.

"When we played England last here(Mumbai), the morning of the first day wicket was a bit damp, it spun a little and it was absolutely flat on day 2 and 3. I see very similar traits here. We got out of jail and got to 330-340 the last time we played them here," Ashwin said after outperforming his peers again.

"If we could have got one more wicket, we were on the course to do that (it would have been better), but probably we will come out tomorrow morning and try and snap couple of wickets and see how quickly we can stall their innings."

Ashwin started the game slowly but in the last session of the day, he managed to send Moeen Ali, Jonny Bairstow, and the centurion Keaton Jennings back to the pavilion in a devastating spell that brought India back into the game.

"I thought the rewards for that spell came for what I did in the afternoon session because I thought I bowled a really good spell then to Jennings and Moeen Ali and got Root out. I thought that was one of the better spells of the day and got rewards for it as soon as I came back in the third spell," the 30-year-old added.

Ashwin also talked about how much India missed the in-form pacer Mohammed Shami, who was forced to miss the game due to a knee injury.

"Shami has been one of those go-to bowlers for us to try and break partnerships and also close out the innings. He is been fabulous over the last year and he is someone who we definitely missed, I thought if he was around maybe we could have ended up snapping one or two wickets, but that's how the game goes," the TN-spinner said.

Ashwin claims Joe Root's wicket was a plan that worked like a charm

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