His confidence has been on the rise in the recent past, and on Friday, Ravichandran Ashwin put India in a commanding position on Day 2 of the first Test against New Zealand at the Rajiv Gandhi International Cricket Stadium (RGICS) here.
Not only did he hit a fighting 37 coming in at No. 8, but he also ended the day with figures of 3/30 from 14 overs.
The 25-year-old seemed surprised at bagging a wicket off the very first ball of his spell. “Yes, probably I was. I concentrated on landing the ball at the right area, and it worked,” Ashwin said at the post-match session.
On the pitch at the RGICS, Ashwin said, “The wicket does have some bounce. We were able to extract some (bounce) with the new ball, but as it (the ball) gets older, it becomes tough. One needs to be patient to get wickets,” he said.
On India ending their first innings at 438, Ashwin said, “I think we floundered a bit. If we had one good partnership going towards the end, we could have got closer to the 500-run mark. Having said that, the total on board is good enough.”
“I thought we bowled well, and stuck to our plans. We are in a good position to bowl the Kiwis twice in the match,” Ashwin added.
The dismissal of Ross Taylor, caught at slips by Virat Kohli, had to be referred to the third umpire and the decision took some time coming. But Ashwin said he was convinced of the judgement going in India's favour.
“I asked Virat and he said that his hands were below the ball when he took the catch, so we were sure of the dismissal,” he said.