While he believes that having fewer Test centers benefits players, India’s top off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin declined to comment on whether India should follow Australia’s or England’s strategy of playing Test matches at a limited number of locations or traditional Test centers.
Ashwin agreed with other players, including Virat Kohli, who have previously said that Test cricket should only be played in large cities.
Does having a small number of test centers assist a player? Ashwin asked reporters at the post-match news conference after the second Test match between India and Bangladesh at the Green Park Stadium in Kanpur. It surely does. Because they only play India at five Test locations when we visit Australia. We are not played in Canberra. They don’t perform for us in any of the other locations where they won’t know the circumstances well. England does too. There are certain test centers where they play. Only white-ball centers are among them. Is it possible to do it in India? My salary grade is higher than that. I am unable to comment on it.
According to Ashwin, the benefit of playing in specific locations is that players may adjust their strategy and game plan based on their knowledge of the environment.
The 38-year-old off-spinner praised Shubhman Gill and Yashaswi Jaiswal, calling them the future cornerstones of Indian cricket. “I would argue that both of them are still in their early years or native days of playing Test cricket, but I can see that the future pillars and foreign ports they will soon face will also improve and enrich their great Test adventure moving ahead. We all know that they are both unique,” he remarked.
The cricket player from Tamil Nadu went on to say that India’s strategy of making fast runs in their first innings was a component of their game plan and gave skipper Rohit Sharma credit for following through on it. “Rohit Sharma just stepped out and tonked the first ball for six, but we know how Yashaswi (Jaiswal) will play. The dressing room is forced to follow the same pattern when you live up to the rhetoric, and we scored 50 runs in three overs,” he said.
