As the Ahmedabad Test headed towards a certain draw on Day 5, skipper Rohit Sharma decided to give the ball to his top-order batters. First, it was Shubman Gill bowling off-spin to Marnus Labuschagne and Steve Smith, and then Cheteshwar Pujara was introduced into the attack to bowl leg spin.
Pujara tossed up the first delivery and Labuschagne worked it towards deep cover for a single. Pujara tossed up three deliveries, bowled one back of the length and bowled one flatter but Smith was in no mood to take a chance. Pujara conceded just one run in his over. This was the second time Pujara was bowling in his Test career.
After the fourth Test ended in a draw and India won the Border-Gavaskar Trophy by 4-1, Ashwin posted a hilarious tweet with Pujara bowling leg spin. He used stand-up comic Abhishek Upmanyu’s joke as he tweeted: “Main kya karu? Job chod du? (What should I do? Leave the job)”
After taking 25 wickets in the series, Ashwin was adjudged 'Player of the series' alongside his spin partner Ravindra Jadeja who took 22 wickets. Ashwin gave an insight to his partnership with the left-arm spinner.
“It has been a great journey. We (himself and Jadeja) started a long time ago but we wouldn't be the same or lethal enough without the other. We need to recognise that, at least I have started recognising that over the last 2-3 years,” Ashwin told broadcasters.
“He gives me a lot of freedom to be creative with the ball, credit to him, I thought he bowled beautifully in the Delhi Test as well and that's why we are here today. Jaddu keeps it really simple, he does not fret around or bother about what has happened, but I saw him sit in one place for an hour after he got out, so that told me how disappointed he was and that came out today.
“The conversations have been a lot more in the last 2-3 years because I know how to communicate and what are his likes, his dislikes and even knowing what will help him. Even he has adapted beautifully to the chop and change, during the series when Head was going, Khawaja was playing, we had a lot of good conversations and some of them ended up with wickets and some of them are quite funny.”
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