Dinesh Karthik hails Ravichandran Ashwin after Dhaka knock: “Pressure generally gets the best out of him”

Veteran Indian keeper-batter Dinesh Karthik praised Ravichandran Ashwin for his vital knock in the second Test against Bangladesh in Dhaka on Sunday, December 25. Hailing the 36-year-old, Karthik opined that pressure brings out the best in Ashwin in Test cricket.

Chasing 145, India slumped to 74/4 in their second innings, with an embarrassing defeat staring them in the face. However, Ashwin (42*) and Shreyas Iyer (29*) added an unbroken 71 runs for the eighth wicket to save India's blushes. A nervous three-wicket win saw India clinch the two-match series by a 2-0 margin.

Reflecting on India’s batting performance on Sunday, Karthik admitted that things could have been difficult had Ashwin been dismissed cheaply. Speaking on Cricbuzz, he commented:

“When Axar (Patel) lost his wicket, I knew Ashwin was the last throw of the dice. But I also knew the fact that this was one guy who knew how to handle pressure. When he bats with a regular batsman, he will bring the best out of him. And pressure generally gets the best out of him in this format. It was great to see him bat the way he did.”

Ashwin had a lucky escape on one when he inside-edged a delivery from Mehidy Hasan Miraz, but Mominul Haque at short leg could not latch on to a simple catch. The drop proved extremely costly for Bangladesh as Ashwin and Shreyas did not offer them any other chance.

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“An extra spinner would have added a lot more” - Dinesh Karthik on India dropping Kuldeep Yadav

Despite India’s victory in the Dhaka Test, Karthik opined that the visitors made a mistake by dropping left-arm spinner Kuldeep Yadav from the playing XI.

He stated that the pitch wasn’t one that merited playing three fast bowlers. The 37-year-old said:

“One of the mistakes per se would have been the choice of the XI. An extra spinner would have added a lot more to this game than a fast bowler could have.

"We saw the fast bowlers bowling short spells. But credit to Jaydev Unadkat. I really think he stood up in this game and did what he could do very well. But there wasn’t too much for the fast bowlers. There was a lot more happening for the spinners.”

India made the shocking decision to drop Kuldeep from the playing XI for the second Test, despite the fact that he was the Player of the Match in the first Test in Chattogram.

Unadkat came in and played his first Test in 12 years. He did a good job, claiming two wickets in the first innings and one in the second.