The Indian Express (Delhi Edition)
‘Bazball experience was exciting, challenging, and a great learning’
Ashwin reflects on England’s bravado approach, the decisive factors in the series and how he blends instinct with home work to outwit batsmen
CARLOS ALCARAZ looked back at his best as he swatted aside a swarm of bees and world number six Alexander Zverev to reach the semi-finals at Indian Wells on Thursday, setting up a clash with the in-form Jannik Sinner. The world number two took the interruption to clear the bees from the court in his stride before racing past Zverev 6-3 6-1 in little more than 90 minutes to keep his title defence on track.
Zverev did not play badly but Alcaraz's allcourt game was just too good, the 20-yearold Spaniard sealing the victory by breaking the German for the fourth time and taking his winning streak in the Californian desert to 10 matches. “It was strange, I've never seen something like that at a tennis match,” twice major champion Alcaraz said of the invasion of bees, during which he was stung on the forehead before heading for cover.
“I'm not going to lie, I'm a little bit afraid of the bees. Once the match started again, I managed to stay away from the bees and do the things I needed to do.”
Italian Sinner earlier continued his perfect start to the season by cruising past Jiri Lehecka 6-3 6-3 to improve his win-loss record this year to 16-0.
A windy, cool day did little to slow down the hottest player on the men's tour as Sinner was in control throughout, facing a single break chance the entire contest while his opponent piled up unforced errors.
“In the morning, it was really, really windy,” Sinner said in his court-side interview. “The first set was tough to handle. He has huge potential so I was really aware of every point that I made and in a way I am just happy because I make the semi-finals last year and this year I have again a chance to play in the semis in one of the greatest tournaments we have throughout the whole year.”
Lehecka reached his first Masters 1000 quarter-final with upset wins over fifth seed Andrey Rublev and 11th seed Stefanos Tsitsipas but had no answers for the lanky Australian Open champion.
The third seed quickly had his Czech opponent under pressure by collecting the first break in the third game with a massive forehand winner before closing out the set with a second break. It was much the same business-like approach in the second as Sinner again claimed the early break to get 3-1 ahead and he held serve on the way to a 19th straight win including three from the end of last season.
Local hope Tommy Paul also reached the semi-finals with a 6-2 1-6 6-3 win over Casper Ruud and will take on Australian Open runner-up Daniil Medvedev, who powered past Holger Rune 7-5 6-4 to stay on course for his first title of the year.
EVEN THOUGH India beat England 4-1 in the recent series, all-rounder R Ashwin said what Ben Stokes & Co did through the series cannot be spoken on a lesser note. After starting the series on a winning note, and having India under pressure at various stages in Visakhapatnam, Rajkot and Ranchi, England ended up losing their first series of the Bazball era.
"What England did on this tour cannot be negated or cannot be spoken of on a lesser note. I think that is some fantastic work. Whenever you do something new and when it's likely to be revelation or revolutionary or entertaining, you will find areas that you can always find a balance to. All in all, I thought they played good cricket. But we played some better cricket at the right moments,” Ashwin said in The Idea Exchange with The Indian Express (the detailed transcript will be published later).
Though India started off on a losing note, in the end, their superior bowling attack proved to be the difference between the two sides. “I didn't think too much about it going into the series. I expected them to come swinging down a bit and probably try to put pressure on us, which they did,” said Ashwin, who led the wicket-charts in the series with 26 scalps.
“For me, it was great learning. It was very exciting and challenging. At the same time, I’m very glad that at the other end of it, I've learned a lot more,” he added.
Though England didn’t find anyone to repeat Ollie Pope’s match-winning heroics at Hyderabad in the remaining series, they stuck to their hitherto successful formula. Except for Dharamsala, in the other three Tests, they repeatedly put India under pressure, before blinking first. “You have also been on tours, where the final test can be tough without the context,” he said.
For Ashwin, the 100th Test at Dharamsala was the high point of the series. After receiving the 100th Test cap from head coach Rahul Dravid, he picked up four wickets in the first innings, before picking 5 in the second. On Day 3, which turned out to be the final morning of the series, Ashwin started England’s slide by picking up four wickets, including that of England captain Ben Stokes. Having bowled an eight-over spell, India brought Ashwin for the last over before lunch, and the arm-ball delivered from around the stumps spelled doom for Stokes.
The wicket came soon after a conversation between Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja and vice-captain Jasprit Bumrah, who was leading the side as Rohit Sharma sat out, after which Ashwin got an extra over to bowl at the stroke of lunch.
“Gauging moments comes with a certain amount of instinct,” Ashwin spoke of that moment when he came on to bowl. “You have been there in these situations and you know what can and what should happen. It won’t happen every time. But I think it was more about me going to Jaddu and Bumrah and talking to them about what mind space Stokes was in. Because I felt like Stokes wanted to break the shackles and at the same time wanted to do it after lunch. So you just