Ashwin's sublime performance at Chepauk saves India from precarious position

Chennai: While Ravichandran Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja are known for their mastery on Indian pitches, their ability to come to the rescue in tough situations is often overlooked. They have consistently bailed India out of trouble, showcasing the incredible depth of India's batting lineup.

On Thursday, Ashwin rekindled his love affair with Chennai, scoring a breezy hundred and putting on an unbeaten 195-run partnership with Jadeja that pulled India out of a dire situation. Much work still needs to be done if India don’t want to bat again but as of now, they seem well-placed at 339/6 after Ashwin and Jadeja batted together for almost three hours, facing 227 balls.

Reduced to 34/3 within the first hour, and then to 144/6 in the second session, India’s top-order batting was wanting in technique and devoid of patience as seamer Hasan Mahmud made regular inroads with a brilliant spell where he was moving the ball both ways.

Rohit Sharma edged behind, so did Shubman Gill and Virat Kohli. For whatever it’s worth, Rishabh Pant—playing his first Test in nearly two years—at least tried to move the scoreboard by standing well out of the crease, pulling, flicking and punching his way to a fighting 39 before edging Mahmud who ended the day with 4/58.

In came Ashwin and straightaway he looked at ease, punching the quick Nahid Rana through backward point for an imperious boundary. This is where Bangladesh slowly started to lose the plot as their bowlers kept conceding boundaries and losing the stranglehold over India’s innings.

But India kept giving chances to the visitors. Yashasvi Jaiswal scored a well-compiled fifty but Rana snared an edge with a 148.6 kph delivery. Three balls later, KL Rahul—who till then was batting with zen-like composure—was caught brilliantly by Zakir Hasan at short leg and India were in trouble.

Six wickets down, with the innings not quite out of the woods, this wasn’t a scenario Ashwin and Jadeja were unfamiliar with. But rarely before this has Ashwin been so aggressive. Shades of this aggression were on show in Chennai 2021 when Ashwin had brought up his fifty in 64 balls, before taking another 70 balls to reach his hundred. This time though, Ashwin took it to a different level, reaching 100 in just 108 balls by playing all around the park, scoring 36 runs in the midwicket area alone.

“It helps that I have come back at the back of a T20 tournament (TNPL), worked quite a bit on my batting,” said Ashwin after the match. “Of course, I have always been wafting my bat around outside off-stump. I worked on a few things and on a surface like this with a bit of spice, if you’re going after the ball, might as well go after it really hard like Rishabh (Pant) does.” Words to live by, as was evident from the way Ashwin ramped Rana over the slip cordon for an audacious boundary.

Not every shot was improvised though. Imperious was his backfoot game as Ashwin kept carving boundaries through cover and point. With the pitch easing up, farming the strike wasn’t a problem anymore. But boundaries had to come off spinners, and the mood was set pretty early when Jaiswal had attacked Mehidy Hasan Miraz in his first over, slapping him through covers before sweeping him for consecutive boundaries. Ashwin took it a notch further when he swept Shakib Al Hasan before clobbering Miraz for a huge six.

That was the cue for Jadeja to become adventurous as well. So, when Miraz bowled one up, Jadeja got down on one leg and slogged it over deep midwicket for a massive six. It was all pretty much downhill for the visitors from there. The ball had gone softer but it was no excuse for Bangladesh bowlers to go off the boil. Lengths were not stuck to and catches weren’t anticipated well as India slowly strengthened their position through Ashwin and Jadeja’s partnership. Ashwin was playing his shots but equally effective was the way Jadeja tempered the innings with a calm fifty.

“There was a point in time where I was really sweating and getting a bit tired, Jaddu noticed it quickly and guided me through that phase. Jaddu has been one of our best batters for our team in the last few years. Him being there, pretty solid and he was also very helpful in terms of telling me that we don’t have to convert twos into threes which was really helpful for me.”

Which meant Ashwin was trying to compensate with more boundary shots. Chepauk didn’t mind too, cheering on Ashwin as he reached his sixth career hundred, a third of which have come here now.

A Test average at Chepauk that’s already double his current overall average, with more than a tenth of his career boundaries coming in just eight innings here—Ashwin’s form here illustrate what home advantage can truly translate to on an individual basis. With Ashwin and Jadeja unbeaten, India now have the opportunity to exploit the new ball on the second day. And it can’t bode too well for Bangladesh, given they have crossed 350 only once out of six innings in India before this.