Though he practised on a different surface than a cricket pitch to understand what sort of force he must put from his shoulder into his delivery during the first Test against West Indies, Ravichandran Ashwin did not feel ‘OK’ on the first day of practice after reaching the Caribbean.
Ashwin was participating in the Tamil Nadu Premier League (TNPL), the local T20 league from his state, and did not feel ok about his arm speed, body position and crease, which wasn’t really ideal when he first practised before the first Test against West Indies.
Despite the initial feeling, Ashwin bowled superbly as he claimed 5-60 to help India bowl out West Indies for 150 in their first innings.
“I came, I landed in Barbados. I felt a bit of jet lag, as I came from the TNPL. I felt like my shoulder, the arms speed and you know, the body position and the crease wasn’t really ideal. The first day at Barbados when we played on the practice surface, the next was okay, the practice game, Ashwin said in a video tweeted by the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI).
“The first day I didn’t feel ‘Okay’ at all. The second day I did another 8 to 10 overs. That was slightly better. So I just felt like with the jet lag and the amount of workload, my shoulder, rotational speed, the body going through into the ball, all these things take a certain amount of time and what happens is sometimes you’re playing really slow and turning surfaces,” he said.
Ashwin said this helps him find the sweet spot and that is what he did before the start of the Test series against the West Indies.
“So I always go and practice on a concrete or a cement surface or an Astro surface where I get the ball. I don’t have to really muscle the ball, I just have to like release it nicely and I know that’s my sweet spot. So I tried to do it.
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