Big challenge in Renshaw

Sydney, Jan 25 (IANS) Australian batter Matt Renshaw has picked ace India off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin as the key Indian bowler and the toughest to face in the upcoming four-Test series for the Border-Gavaskar Trophy starting from February 9 in Nagpur.

With Australia’s batting line-up packed with left-handers like David Warner, Usman Khawaja, Travis Head and Alex Carey apart from Renshaw himself, Ashwin will be crucial for India as he became the first bowler to take 200 wickets against left-hand batters in 2021.

“Ashwin is difficult to face. He is a smart bowler with a lot of variations and he uses them very well, but you do get used to him once you’ve faced him for a while,” Renshaw was quoted as saying by AAP.

He added that the Australian batters will have to be wary of the delivery which doesn’t spin from Ashwin and can trap the batters lbw.

“I think the big challenge from Ashwin and any off-spinner in spinning conditions to a left-hander is the lbw threat.

As Rohit pulled to deep square leg off Blair Tickner to get to his 30th ODI century and second against New Zealand, the broadcasters flashed the statistic that it was the Indian skipper’s first ton since January 19, 2020. While the statistic was correct, Rohit felt in the post-match press conference that it did not convey the correct picture, pointing out he hardly played any ODIs during that period due to various reasons.

“I have played only 12 ODIs in three years. Three years sounds (like) a lot, but in that three years, I have played only 12 or 13 (17) ODIs if am not wrong. I know it was shown on the broadcast, sometimes we need to show the right things also.”

“Last entire year we didn’t play ODI cricket, we were focussing on T20 cricket a lot. Kabhi kabhi thoda woh hum ko dhyan chahiye, broadcaster ko bhi sahi cheez dikhana chahiye (We should pay attention to such things, the broadcaster, too, needs to check these things),” he said.

In his knock at Indore, Rohit took time before switching gears to

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“And in the last year, we have just played T20 cricket. In T20 cricket at the moment, other than Suryakumar Yadav anyone else is batting better; he has hit two (T20I) centuries, and I don’t think anyone else has scored a century. In Test cricket, I have played just two matches against Sri Lanka. Otherwise, I was injured in between. Please check all that and after that, you can ask me (about my form),” he added.

Rohit was also full of praise for his opening partner Shubman Gill, who was the leading run-getter in the series and slammed his third ODI ton in the last four innings, taking home the Player of the Series award. At Indore, Gill slammed 112 off 78 balls, hitting 13 fours and five sixes at a strike rate of 143.59 and shared an opening partnership of 212 with Rohit.

“Honestly, with the way he (Shubman) was batting in and before this series, I don’t think much needs to be told. He understands his game really well, if you see he paces his innings very well, you have to go big and deep into the game.