Chennai, September 22
Team India skipper Rohit Sharma lauded the right-arm off spinner Ravichandran Ashwin for his exceptional performance with both bat and ball at his home, M.A. Chidambaram Stadium.
Indian spinning duo Ravichandran Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja took India to a comfortable victory of 280 runs over Bangladesh in the first Test on Sunday.
Ashwin was awarded the Player of the Match for his marvellous all-round performance (ton and fifer) in the recently concluded Chennai Test. With the bat, the right-hand batter played a knock of 113 runs from 133 balls which was laced with 11 boundaries and two maximums in the innings. With the ball, off spinner bagged six wickets in his spell of 21 overs where he conceded 88 runs.
"He's next in line to talk to you, he's the right man to answer what he does. Every time we look up to him, he's always there for us whether with the bat or ball. I don't know if I speak here, it'll be enough of what he does for this team. Every time we see him come out and do the job, it's always so brilliant. He's never out of the game. The last competitive cricket he played was IPL and then he had some fun playing TNPL. We watched him bat up the order and that's what helped him as well to bat the way he did," Rohit said in the post-match presentation.
Further, the 37-year-old spoke about wicketkeeper-batter Rishabh Pant, who returned back to the longest format of the game after two years.
"He's been through some really tough times. The way he has managed himself through those tough times was superb to watch. He came back in the IPL, followed by a very successful World Cup and this is the format he loves the most. For us, it was never about what is he going to do with the bat, we always knew what he had with the bat and with the gloves as well," the right-hand batter stated.
"It was just about giving him the game time. Credit to him as well, he went on to play Duleep Trophy and got ready for this Test match and had an impact straightaway in the game. No matter what the conditions are, whether we play in India, whether we play outside, we want to build the team around that (strong bowling)," the opener added.
Pant played a 109-run knock from 128 balls at a strike rate of 85.16 in the second inning. The 26-year-old slammed 13 fours and 4 sixes during his time on the crease. His knock came to an end after Mehidy Hasan Miraz dismissed him in the 56th over of India's second inning.