Wanted to try something different – Ravichandran Ashwin on using the carrom ball

India’s veteran spinner Ravichandran Ashwin revealed that the Mumbai pitch is divided into two halves. Ashwin conceded while it is a bit flat at one end, it is doing a lot more from the other end. When the off-spinner was bowling from the dressing room end, which had less assistance for him, he was taken down for two sixes by Glenn Phillips.

That’s when Ashwin decided to bring out a new arrow from his quiver and bamboozled the right-hander with a carrom ball. The 38-year-old also caught and bowled New Zealand’s top-scorer Will Young with a carrom ball, and returned with impressive figures of 3-63 on the second day’s play.

Ashwin said while talking to Dinesh Karthik for Jio Cinema after the end of day’s play, “The game itself is divided into two halves. The one from the pavilion end and the other side, the wicket is responding very differently. It’s slightly flatter from the one where we are bowling from the dressing room side, the the bounce is much lesser, so I thought I will try and use it the other way. The batters are also knowing that it’s easier to take me on from this side. So I wanted to give something different.”

On the other hand, Ashwin took a brilliant catch to dismiss Daryl Mitchell while running back. Ashwin said he trusted his hands and wanted to get as close to the ball as possible.

Ashwin added, “I was just telling myself that it’s going to anyway leave me, I wanted to get as close to the ball as possible and I’ve got great hands, so I trusted my hands to go through with it.”

Speaking on the pitch, Ashwin found the Mumbai track a bit slower as compared to earlier times.

Ashwin concluded, “I expected a lot more bounce and speed from this Mumbai pitch, it has been quite slow which is a surprise for me. It’s not a typical Bombay pitch, but much slower than usual.

New Zealand were leading by 143 runs on stumps on the second day with one wicket remaining.