Former India spinner Ravichandran Ashwin has claimed that he is even ready to pay if he needs to be a part of New Zealand team meetings to understand how they plan things and what plan they follow to build their strong analytical skills.
India won the first match of the ODI series against New Zealand in Vadodara. Virat Kohli’s brilliant 93, coupled with Shubman Gill’s half-century and Shreyas Iyer’s fighting 49 off 47 balls set the stage for Harshit Rana and KL Rahul to finish it off in some style.
India won the match, but after a tough contest between the two, which resulted in a four-wicket win for the home team. However, after the win, former spinner Ravichandran Ashwin started praising the strong analytical build-up of the Kiwis.
Ravichandran Ashwin offered huge amount to New Zealand team
Great Indian spinner Ravichandran Ashwin observed that New Zealand had the best tactical presence on the field and could have made a comeback, even if they failed to defend the 301-run target set by the Men in Blue.
He expressed a strong desire to be a part of the New Zealand dressing room and see and understand their strategies and the way they plan things. In a moment of frustration, Ashwin also commented that he was ready to pay any amount to be a part of those meetings.
“A lot of the top teams are not very analytically driven. New Zealand is a very analytically driven team. I look forward to sitting with them and observing their planning; I am even willing to pay for it if need be. The way they execute their plans, I will sit in their team meetings and understand how they think about it,” Ashwin said on his YouTube channel.
Ashwin bowed before New Zealand’s fighting spirit in Vadodara
In the batting department, New Zealand’s openers played strategic innings despite many of their leading players missing the series. New Zealand are without frontline batsman Rachin Ravindra and their most experienced campaigners in Kane Williamson and Tom Latham.
Some of their bowlers, such as Lockie Ferguson, Matt Henry and William O’Rourke have also missed the series and are currently recovering from their injuries.
“We have to give credit to New Zealand for the way they were willing to fight in the game. They didn’t stop till the end, and that’s why they were able to get back into the game. I also posted a tweet that New Zealand don’t have a lot of strength in their team in terms of man-to-man.”
Ashwin further added, “But because of their discipline, fielding and executing their plans well, they have been able to fight and compete with some of the top teams.”
“India did not play the best cricket” – Ravichandran Ashwin
However, the Indian legend felt that on the contrary, Team India did not play its A game even though they won the match. Ravichandran Ashwin mentioned that he was more impressed by New Zealand’s performance.
The former Indian cricketer praised the youngster, saying, “The New Zealand team was the most impressive. India did not play the best cricket. There were areas where Harshit Rana bowled really well and batted really well.”
Ravichandran Ashwin commented, “Virat Kohli had another positive – what a batting! His movement and footwork, he played a shot against Christian Clarke, perhaps, where he showed all three stumps. Christian Clarke chased him down, didn’t give him enough space to open his hands and he hit a boundary with the flick.”
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