England vs India: Pitch was tough to bat on; Ravichandran Ashwin defends Indian batsmen

Indian off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin came to the defence of the facile Indian batting line-up which apart from Virat Kohli failed to put up any substantial contribution with the visitors suffering a heart-breaking 31-run defeat against England at Edgbaston on Saturday.

India needed to chase down 193 runs with two days of play remaining after the bowlers had bundled England out for 180 in the second innings. Ashwin himself had taken three wickets to complement Ishant Sharma’s five-wicket haul.

Also Read: England vs India: Personal milestones ‘doesn’t matter in larger picture,’ says Virat Kohli

The batsmen, however, failed to carry India over the line getting dismissed for 162 to lose the match by 31 runs. Virat Kohli who had scored a magnificent 149 in the first innings once again top scored with 51, even as batsmen around him failed to deliver twice in the same match.

Ashwin though said that batsmen from both the sides struggled to bat on the pitch which had enough assistance for the fast bowlers.

“It was quite a tough pitch to bat on. I don’t think batsmen from both the sides were able to make runs with a lot of freedom, barring the partnership in the first innings between Joe Root and Jonny Bairstow and Virat and Hardik. It has been quite a struggle that way, so we got to give batsmen some space,” said Ashwin at the post-match conference.

Also Read: England vs India: Nasser Hussain asks Virat Kohli to take responsibility for Edgbaston loss

Despite the defeat, he refused to be bogged down and instead said that there were many positives India could take from this match.

“I think this is a game where we would have liked to finish on the winning side. No doubt about it but there are a lot of things we can feel proud of at the end of this game, it’s a long Test series so to feel defeated or pained so early on in the series is unfair and at the moment it is all about the feelings that I am bringing out, and I don’t feel that bad about it as of now because I thought we competed really well and made two comebacks and probably didn’t close out the game when the initiative was on our side. That’s something that can happen when you are traveling so we are upbeat about it,” he said.

“When you make runs and pick up wickets, you want to make sure that it is a killer blow and you want to end up on the winning side. It gives you more pleasure out of the game and when it doesn’t happen you feel a little deflated about it.

“But as I told you before, this game was like a see-saw battle and I thought we competed really well through the game. There are a lot of things to be upbeat about so not completely feeling deflated and in this space  I feel like we did well and there is something we can learn going ahead in this series,” he added.