Ashwin explained how he won the battles against Ben Stokes
Veteran off-spinner of Indian cricket team Ravichandran Ashwin has revealed how Ben Stokes going into a shell allowed him to get the better of the England captain during the recently concluded Test series. In the final and final Test in Dharamsala, which India won by an innings and 64 runs, Ravichandran Ashwin picked up his 36th five-wicket haul. One of the wickets in his spell was that of Stokes just before the stroke of lunch on Day 3. Aswhin bowled an arm ball to Stokes, and the cherry went through the gap between the bat and pad to rattle the stumps.
Ashwin said that Stokes gets too worried about getting LBW, and that’s exactly how he wanted to dismiss him.
Ashwin said, “I just felt like when Stokes gets into the very defensive shells, he allows you to come a little bit fuller and wider on occasions because he’s worried so much about the LBW. He gets into the zone of being literally extra tight, and he could just lunge forward to every single ball on those occasions.”
“The ball found enough bounce and deviation to just get between the bat and pad of that top half. My intention was to get him out of LBW, but the bounce enabled me to get through the transit,” he explained.