India hard to beat in favorable conditions, says Ravichandran Ashwin

India’s no.1 spinner Ravichandran Ashwin said that India are very hard to defeat, if the conditions are in their favor. “I think, we are a very good team. On our day and under conditions favourable for us, we are going to be a pretty hard side to beat. There will be exceptions. We lost a recent game in Pune against Sri Lanka and another one in Nagpur against New Zealand. On both occasions, the opposition read the game better than us,” said Ashwin after the win against Pakistan.

Ashwin said that they were surprised by the turn that the Eden Garden’s pitch offered, but said that it wasn’t as easy as it looked. “(Ravindra) Jadeja and me were hitting a particular length. That is very important for the ball to grip and for the other one to go straight,” said Ashwin.

On being asked about the variations, Ashwin said that it is important to keep the variations in T20 format to be successful. Ashwin also said that he has to vary the pace and trajectory depending on the pitch.

Ashwin felt that winning the toss against Pakistan was the best thing to happen. He said bowling first was a wise move on wicket like that, because any score could have been chased on that pitch. “Thankfully, we won the toss and it (the pitch) spun a little which made things easier. The wicket was moist. I for once thought we should bowl first,” the 29-year-old off spinner said.

Ashwin bowled 3 overs for 12 runs as he opened the bowling with Ashish Nehra. He said that he tends to go for few runs when he opens the bowling, but once he gets a wicket or two and then he just becomes a different bowler altogether.

“We were just wondering how to tackle the first five overs. If they got off to a good start, then it would have been difficult to pull the score back. It was important for us to put it behind and come and play a fresh game. That’s exactly what we did,” said Ashwin.