R Ashwin trusts his defensive batting in Test

Following his Mirpur heroics, Ravichandran Ashwin said he likes to build his batting in Test around solid defence and that’s what he did against Bangladesh on Sunday when he led India to a win from a precarious situation in the second Test.

Ashwin scored a 62-ball 42 not out while stitching an unbeaten 71-run stand with Shreyas Iyer (29*) as India’s last recognised batting pair. The duo successfully chased down 145 from 74/7 down on Day 4 morning.

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Speaking to man-of-the-series Cheteshwar Pujara on BCCI.tv soon after, Ashwin said he rates his defence strongly when Pujara asked him if batting experience in ODIs and T20Is gave him confidence in the chase.

“Quite possibly…” responded Ashwin. “I still would like to think I rate my defence pretty strongly, even if it can look a little iffy at times I think test matches are played and built around defence and as a batter…I’m talking to a man who builds his game around defence.”

Pujara noded his head with a smile and said: “I completely agree.”

Ashwin then poked fun at the Test specialist for taking a more aggressive stance against Bangladeshi spinners by stepping out of the crease often.

“On the other side, Cheteshwar Pujara has gone over the top and has swept bowlers with consistency through this series,” said Pujara.

Pujara revealed that he has been working on those shots for a while now during practice sessions and finally excecuted them during the Bangladesh series.

“You know that I have been working on this for quite some time and it has been almost a couple of years. It has been in all of my practice sessions and last Test match was the one where I got an opportunity to do that,” Pujara told.

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