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Mirpur: India’s star off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin on Monday lauded the team’s bowling unit, specially the pace duo of Ashish Nehra and Jasprit Bumrah for putting in their best efforts at the start and at the end of a bowling innings in recent times. (Asia Cup: Being Tested in Various Environments Good For India, Says Ravichandran Ashwin)
The 36-year old Nehra, and 22-year-old Bumrah have swung the ball in the powerplays and then peppered the batsmen later in the innings with yorkers.
After two back-to-back Twenty20 International series victories against Australia and Sri Lanka recently, the 2007 World T20 champions have got their Asia Cup campaign on a good start, defeating hosts Bangladesh by 45 runs in the opener and following it up with a thumping five-wicket win over arch-rivals Pakistan on Saturday.
This is the first time the iconic tournament is being played in the Twenty20 format. All the earlier events were One-Day International (ODI) editions.
“Our death bowling could definitely be much better than what it was in the past so that gives a lot of confidence and we can go about our middle overs with a lot more attacking instinct, to try and pick up wickets to seal things off.
“That’s definitely a positive, but at the end of the day, only I can help myself,” Ashwin said at the pre-match press conference ahead of their clash against Sri Lanka at the Sher-e-Bangla National Cricket Stadium here on Tuesday.
“I think it’s very good if you can punch as a group and especially Ashish — we all know that he is a very experienced candidate. He has come in on the back of a very good India Premier League (IPL) last year, so we know exactly what his strengths are. He can swing the ball up front and has good abilities to bowl at the death.”
“Bumrah has got a unique action and he has done very well in the IPL for the last couple of years. He can bowl those lethal yorkers again, which we might have been missing in the past few years so that’s definitely given us an extra sting,” Ashwin added.
The Asia Cup will be followed by World T20 in India in March-April and India skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni criticised the nature of Bangladesh pitches in the ongoing Asia Cup to be too bowlers’ friendly.
Source: NDTV