Limited Test centers are a game-changer: Ashwin

Premier off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin on Tuesday agreed that having a limited number of Test centres helps the players but fell short of endorsing the idea for India, saying it was above his pay grade to comment on that.

The debate on Test centres was reignited after Kanpur’s Green Park stadium came under criticism for a poor drainage system, resulting in a loss of full two days in the second game between India and Bangladesh.

Star batter Virat Kohli had suggested a few years ago that India should have five major Test centres like Australia and England.

“Does it help a player if you have just a few Test centres? Most certainly it does,” Ashwin said after India trounced Bangladesh by seven wickets here on Tuesday.

“Because when we go to Australia, they play India only at five Test centres. They don’t play us in Canberra. They don’t play us at any of the other venues where they won’t be very familiar with the conditions. So do England.”

“They have select Test centres and that’s where they play. Some of those are only white-ball centres. Can we do it here (in India)? That’s above my pay grade. I cannot comment on that,” the player of the series said.

The advantage of playing at the only select Test centres is that the players are familiar with the conditions and know what exactly they would require to do at a specific venue.

Australia have a tradition of playing at Melbourne, Sydney, Perth, Brisbane and Adelaide. England have London, Birmingham, Manchester, Nottingham and Edgbaston as their major Test centres.

Before saying that having limited Test centres indeed helps, Ashwin elaborated how cricket benefits by having various venues for the traditional format.

“Firstly, what are the benefits that Indian cricketers attain by having so many Test centers are, you have got cricketers who come and play Test cricket from every nook and corner of this country.”

“It is a huge country and it has triggered that sort of urgency and that sort of passion amongst cricketers to be able to come and play for this country. That is a big positive.”

“The second of it is there are certain requisite ingredients that go into making a Test match happen. Like, for the weather and the kind of drainage that we need to be able to invest on. These are no-brainers,” he said, making it clear that there should not be any compromise on required facilities.

Talking about young opener Yashaswi Jaiswal and Shubhman Gill, Ashwin had no doubt that they were stars in the making.

“I would say both of them are in the native days or the formative years of playing Test Cricket but I do see that there will be the future pillars and overseas shores that they’re going to encounter shortly will also enhance and enrich their experience going forward in their wonderful Test journey. They both are special, we all know that.”

Ashwin said coming out to bat with an ultra aggressive approach was a plan they had to follow in the truncated second Test.

“We know how Yashasvi is going to play but Rohit walked out and just tonked the first ball for six. So when you walk the talk, obviously the dressing room doesn’t have any other choice but to follow that same pattern. We have 50 runs out of 3 overs,” he said.