Ashwin must try to improve overseas record

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It was a good day for Indian cricket on Sunday. Not only did they cruised to a thumping victory over New Zealand in Hyderabad, but also became the champion in the Under-19 World Cup defeating Australia.

The Indians also became the only team after Australia to win the senior and junior World Cup titles in consecutive years.
While the win over the Kiwis was sweet, the triumph at Townsville was sweeter. It doesn’t happen very often in Indian cricket that you tour Australia and beat them in their own den, and no wonder that the entire nation is proud of the achievement of the lads.
The Under-19 tournaments are a platform, a supply chain to the Indian senior team. Though it is premature to take a call on it, I hope lot of these players will be well looked after by their states.
It is very important to strike the right balance of pushing them at the right time to play at the highest level. It should not be too early, nor too late.
Players of the quality of Unmukt Chand, Smith Patel, Baba Aparajith, Ravikant Singh and Harmeet Singh, though, need to be handled properly to make them ready for the top level. India were equally brilliant in Hyderabad. By winning the toss, skipper M.S. Dhoni had put a lot of pressure on the opposition batsmen because batting on fourth day in a Test match in India has never been never easy, and New Zealanders struggled considerably.
In the post-match presentation, Black Caps skipper Ross Taylor said a lot of his team-mates were not familiar with the Indian conditions, and thus it was not easy for them to get used to the turning ball straight away.
A lot of people might say that it wasn’t a very strong New Zealand batting lineup but still getting 20 wickets in a Test match is a tough task, and Indian bowlers deserve credit for that.
The spinners were outstanding with man of the match R. Ashwin returning with figures of 12/85.
Jiten Patel also bowled very well for the visitors but having watched Pragyan Ojha and Ashwin, he must have realised how important it is to bowl slow in these conditions.
So far, Ashwin has a very good record in India and I hope he uses this experience to become better overseas. He must try and improve inspite of picking so many wickets in home series, try and get better and add variation in his repertoire, which will come handy when he travels abroad.
Ashwin must realise that he will not get so much purchase away from home but still has to pick wickets in these conditions, and I am sure he will only get better. (360 Corporate Relations)