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The recent Kanpur Test match faced a significant challenge not from the opposition but from the wet conditions that wiped out two-and-a-half days of play. This incident has sparked a debate on whether India should limit their Test venues to a select few. India cricketer Ravichandran Ashwin shared his insights on the matter at the post-match press conference in Kanpur.
Ashwin began by highlighting the positives of having numerous Test centres across India, "Firstly, the benefits that Indian cricketers attain by having so many Test centres is 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." However, he also addressed the drawbacks of playing at venues that lack proper facilities. "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 in. These are no-brainers," Ashwin said at the press-conference. Ashwin further explained the advantage of having a few dedicated Test centres, "Does it help a player if you have just a few test centres? Most certainly it does. Because when we go to Australia, they play India only at five test centres. They don't play us at the Manuka Oval in Canberra. They don't play us at any of the other venues there. They won't be very familiar with the conditions. So do England. They have certain select Test centres and that's where they play. Some of those are only white ball centres." When asked if India could adopt a similar approach, Ashwin responded cautiously: "Can we do it here? That's above my pay grade. I cannot comment on that." Before India takes up their new assignment, Ashwin will continue to be the talk of the town for the eye-catching set of performances he produced across both Tests. In the Chennai Test, he sent out a strong statement with a hard-fought century in the first inning but his job didn't finish at that. He returned to dampen Bangladesh's hopes of orchestrating a 515-run chase by a six-wicket haul to help India seal a 280-run victory. In the second Test, he was a constant threat to Bangladesh batters with his bewitching spells and spin craft. He stung Bangladesh in crucial junctures, limited their range of strokes, and helped India win against the weather in a rain-curtailed Test in Kanpur. He finished the series as the joint-leading wicket-taker with a whopping tally of 11 scalps alongside his compatriot Jasprit Bumrah. Overall, Ashwin finished the two-match series with 11 wickets and 114 runs to his name. After India extended its consecutive victories at home in Test cricket to 18, the Rohit Sharma-led side will be keen to ride high on the momentum in the three Tests against New Zealand followed by the highly-anticipated Border Gavaskar Trophy in Australia later this year. (ANI)
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