New Delhi: Ashwin scored his fifth Test century to help India set England a target of 482 runs to win at his home ground, the MA Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai.
It was a coincidence that former India leg-spinner Laxman Sivaramakrishnan, who as a state selector had once dropped R Ashwin from a Tamil Nadu junior team for poor batting performance, interviewed the off-spinner who scored his fifth Test century to put India in command on the third day of the second Test against England on Monday.
Ashwin scored his fifth Test century to help India set England a target of 482 runs to win at his home ground, the MA Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai.
While answering a query from Sivaramakrishnan, Ashwin recalled how as a 19-year-old he was dropped from the Tamil Nadu side for failing to play the sweep, a shot he played with great effect on Monday.
Over the last couple of months, Ashwin has rediscovered himself as a batsman to return to the league of Test all-rounders after over three years without even a half-century saw him slipping into the bracket of tail-enders and being pushed down the batting order.
The 34-year-old, who has continued taking wickets in a heap, had scored four centuries and 11 half-centuries in the first six years of his Test career. But after the tour of Sri Lanka in August, 2017, his batting had dipped even though his teammate Ravindra Jadeja improved his batting in Test cricket to justify claims of being the team’s sole all-rounder.
