Ashwin relishes 'special feeling' after scoring second Test ton at Chepauk, hails Jadeja for being 'really helpful'

Ravichandran Ashwin relished the feeling of scoring a Test hundred at Chepauk after rescuing India from a tricky position in the company of Ravindra Jadeja on Day 1 of the first Test against Bangladesh.

Ashwin was unbeaten on 102 off 112 deliveries, bringing up his sixth Test hundred and his second at the iconic MA Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai, stitching a mammoth partnership with Jadeja that was yet to be broken and was worth 195 at close of play on Thursday.

“Always a special feeling to play in front of the home crowd. This is a ground I completely love to play cricket in. It’s given me a lot of wonderful memories. The last time I got a hundred, you were the coach Ravi bhai (Ravi Shastri). It does feel special,” Ashwin said in an interview with official broadcasters Sports18 after stumps, referring to his knock of 106 against England in February 2021.

Ashwin has been quite the handy batter down the order for India over the years, with two of his centuries coming away from home (West Indies). The 37-year-old, however, revealed he continued to work on his batting before the start of India’s home Test season.

“It helps that I have come back at the back of a T20 tournament (TNPL), worked quite a bit on my batting. Of course, I have always been wafting my bat around outside off-stump. Worked on a few things and on a surface like this with a bit of spice, if you’re going after the ball, might as well go after it really hard like Rishabh (Pant) does. It’s an old Chennai surface with a bit of bounce and carry. The red soil pitch allows you to play a few shots if you are willing to just get in line and give it a bit of a tonk when there’s width,” added Ashwin.

Both Ashwin and Jadeja, who was unbeaten on 86 and closing in on his fifth Test hundred, produced superb counter-attacking knocks to catch the Bangladeshis unawares. This was after Hasan Mahmud’s (4/58) four-wicket burst on the opening day had put the visitors in the driving seat, reducing them to 144/6 at one stage.

“He (Jadeja) was of real help, there was a point in time where I was really sweating and getting a bit tired, Jaddu noticed it quickly and guided me through that phase. Jaddu has been one of our best batters for our team in the last few years. Him being there, pretty solid and he was also very helpful in terms of telling me that we don’t have to convert twos into threes which was really helpful for me,” Ashwin said.

As for how the Chennai wicket will behave on the second day after assisting seam-bowling early on Day 1, Ashwin felt there still is “enough in it for the quicks”.

“It’s a typical, old-fashioned Chennai pitch where overspin will fetch a bit of bounce. The wicket will start doing its tricks much later in the game. There’s enough in it for the quicks, good carry, good bounce if we present the seam nice and hard. The new ball will do a bit, there’ll be some help for the bowlers, we’ll have to start afresh tomorrow. There’s a bit in the pitch, it’s still damp underneath, so hopefully as it dries out, it quickens up,” Ashwin signed off.