MS Dhoni hints at Ravichandran Ashwin's inclusion at Brisbane

MS Dhoni (L) and Virat Kohli

Indian captain MS Dhoni has hinted at the possible inclusion of off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin in place of Karn Sharma at Brisbane, who failed to impress with his leggies in the first Test on a wicket that assisted spin, picking up only 4 wickets at the cost of 238 runs.

While Nathan Lyon, his Australian counterpart, delivered a Man-of-the-Match performance grabbing 12 wickets, which included a 7-for in the second innings to spark a late batting collapse on Day 5, Karn’s failures meant India couldn’t capitalise on the conditions that were on offer or the home batsmen’s weakness against spin.

When asked about his team combination for the second Test, Dhoni, speaking at the pre-match press conference, said: “This wicket (Brisbane) will have something for the seamers and with Mitchell (Johnson) bowling left-arm over the wicket and other bowlers bowling round the wicket, there will be footmarks which an off-spinner will be able to exploit better than a left-arm spinner or a leg-spinner.”

He added: “Ashwin is somebody who can bat lower down the order and I feel it is very important because at times we have lost our lower order very cheaply and the batsman at the other end hasn’t got support. It would be a great help to have someone like Ashwin at the other end because he not only spends time in the middle but also scores fluently.”

Ashwin was also seen practising at slips during India’s fielding sessions, which only makes it more certain. Dhoni, meanwhile, wasn’t spotted keeping wickets while Wriddhiman Saha continued to don the gloves, which gives rise to speculations that the 33-year-old might come in as a specialist batsman at the cost of misfiring Rohit Sharma.

Kohli’s approach in the first Test was right

Set a target of 364 on a turning Day 5 Adelaide Oval wicket, Indian captain Virat Kohli decided that his team would go after the chase instead of shutting shop. The visitors had set themselves wonderfully well going into the final session, needed 159 runs with 8 wickets in hand, but the wicket of Murali Vijay led to the unit’s wheels coming off. Despite the continuous fall of wickets, India didn’t seem to relent and eventually lost by 48 runs.

On the team’s aggressive ploy, Dhoni said: “I thought it was the right approach that we went for the target. With the partnership (between Vijay and Virat), we were in a position to chase down the target. Unfortunately Vijay got out and we lost a few more wickets. From there it would have been very difficult to play for a draw and the only right approach was to go for the win. Our approach will remain the same in the coming Tests.”