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One of the crucial reasons behind India‘s invincible run at home since 2013 has been the duo of Ravichandran Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja. They have played 49 Tests together, picking 500 wickets at a tick over 20. 40 of those matches have come at home, where Ashwin and Jadeja have picked 428 wickets at a similar average, and at an economy of well under three. However, before this winning streak of 16 matches had begun, India were undone by a visiting England side in 2012. Ashwin had averaged 52.64 in that series, picking 14 wickets, while Jadeja, who had made his debut in the Nagpur contest, managed three wickets at 39. With England hoping to inflict a similar result in the upcoming five-match contest, the hero of the 2012/13 series, Kevin Pietersen has advice or two for Ben Stokes and his men on tackling the duo of Ashwin and Jadeja.
Speaking in an interview with former England captain Michael Atherton for The Times, Pietersen, who had smashed a magnificent 186 on a turner in the Mumbai Test against India to help England win the series 2-1, explained how he had negated the Ashwin threat in that contest. The veteran England batter advised Stokes and Co. to keep on eye on Ashwin’s ‘doosra’ delivery, saying that he was always 100 per cent certain when the spinner was about to load that variety and hence had the advantage of taking him down through the off side.
“I picked Ashwin’s ‘doosra’. He used to load the ball at the back of his run-up, and I think he still does that now. He never ran up with the ball in his hand as an off-spinner and changed it late for the doosra; you can’t do that. He loaded it up early,” said Pietersen. “I was 100 per cent confident when he was going to bowl it and you’d see how many times I hit him over the off side. I’d see the doosra at the back of his mark and, because he had a stacked leg-side field because the ball was turning so much, I’d think ‘four or six.’”
Besides Ashwin, India also have two left-arm spinners in Jadeja and Axar Patel as part of the squad for the opening two matches. Pietersen advised that to deal with the senior left-armer, batters only required a solid technique.
“I faced Jadeja a lot. It’s about technique. Jadeja is not Murali and he’s not Shane Warne. He’s a left-arm spinner that bowls it one way and occasionally gets the ball to slide on. If your technique is solid enough to play the ball that skids on, you should be fine. If your feet are good, and you are not planting your front foot and you are playing down the line of the ball, you should be fine. Just make sure you are not getting bowled or lbw,” he said.
“If you nick it to slip, no problem at all. If you get bowled or lbw that’s a big issue. You have so much time to wait for the ball and then judge length or line and then move,” he added.
The Test series will begin from January 25 onwards in Hyderabad. This will be India’s third assignment in the ongoing WTC cycle and first at home. India had earlier defeated West Indies 1-0 in a two-match contest and held South Africa to a 1-1 draw.
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