Ashwin accepts that his team did not calculate par scores properly
Ravichandran Ashwin has revealed that he thinks that his team possibly miscalculated par scores at the beginning of their tour of Australia.
Ashwin, the Indian offspinner said that 300 was only achieved once during the six matches played in the Carlton Mid Tri-series which took place just before the World Cup. 300-plus totals have been chased successfully only in this series and facts suggest that teams who chose to bat first have reached 300 or more 23 times. This also includes some instances when 400 has been reached in Australia.
Ashwin said that, "In the past 300 or 260s have been winning scores when we came and played an ODI series here. I think we played in that mindset coming into the series, trying to post a score rather than trying to overachieving and falling short. I thought we did pretty well to post 310s and 320s, just that the par scores were 330s."
India scored 309 in Perth but Australia chased it and set a new record. Australia again chased India’s 308 in Brisbane and won. Australia seemed to struggle against India’s 295 for 6 in Melbourne but Glenn Maxwell came on and made the difference. India looked set to chase 349 at Canberra but could not make it. In Sydney they did chase 331, and finally India got their calculations right.
On this note Ashwin said, "As you saw in the last game, even at Canberra and Sydney, I think we would have achieved 350s. Maybe that's the reason. Obviously the wickets have gone flatter. So I think it was just a question of not calculating the par scores properly."
Miscalculated the help from conditions: Ashwin
When Ashwin came to Australia he was the world’s leading wicket taker in Test cricket for the 2014-15 calender year. He was also the Man of the Series consecutively against Sri Lanka and South Africa. He was full of confidence and had hoped to take wickets but the pitches betrayed him and he had to change his plan. He then tried to give away as few runs as was possible.
Ashwin explained, "In Perth, I came in with a lot of confidence. I was very confident of beating the batsman in flight and all that. What happened is you just miscalculate the amount [of help from the conditions]. The boundaries were pretty short straight. There is a very fine line between trying and being smart and trying and being foolish so they took me on, which I was happy with, because I thought I could get them out and I did end up getting a couple of wickets in the second spell.
"When I came down to Brisbane, it was more calculated. We had put 300 runs on the board and we wanted to restrict them as much as possible. I don't think…. You know, honestly if I continue talking I am going to give up headlines for all you people so that's something I don't want to do. I think it happens only with bowlers. I think at the end of the day, unless we give runs you guys don't get entertained. So what else do we do?"
India hopes to win the T20 series and are at the moment trying to tweak their tactics quickly.
The offspinner said, "Probably when we play in India a one is as good as a dot ball, but probably here a two is as good as a dot ball, because what happens is you don't want to you catch up with the game when concede a two as a spinner and try and bowl a dot ball because that will end up going for a boundary.
“These are some things I continuously follow the Big Bash and try to figure out how the spinners went about it because at the end of the day there is a trend and pattern to how Cricket is being played at every part of the world and it is important to try and gauge it."