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Virat Kohli showered acclaim on veteran off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin, who made a fantastic re-visitation of white-ball cricket after just about four years on Wednesday.
Ashwin was not apart of the XI in the initial two games as India leaned toward ‘mystery spinner’ Varun Chakravarthy, who looked pretty common. Back in the side, Ravichandran Ashwin quickly made his quality felt with two significant wickets.
Talking at the post-match show function, Virat Kohli featured Ashwin’s return as one of the up-sides for Team India.
“The return of Ash [Ravichandran Ashwin] was a real positive, it was something he has worked really hard for. He showed this control and rhythm in the IPL as well, where he bowled to the big boys. He’s a wicket-taker and a smart bowler as well,” he said.
Ravichandran Ashwin got back with figures of 2/14 close by Mohammad Shami’s 3/32 as India contained Afghanistan to 144 runs, getting a 66-run triumph, their first in the ICC T20 World Cup 2021.
Virat Kohli expressed that the thought before the game was to back the players when they get off to a flying beginning.
“T20 cricket is a very instinctive decision. We make most of the decisions on the go. Like today, our openers batted till the 13th over and then the power-hitters did it from there,” he said.
“We don’t decide we’re going all out. We back the guys because they’re so skillful, and sometimes it comes off like today,” he added.
With their expectations of making it to the semi-finals barely holding on, Virat Kohli conceded there were conversations about net run rate ahead of the Afghanistan game.
“NRR was at the back of our mind, to be honest. We spoke in the team meeting that we have to focus on the chance we have (to qualify) and stay positive and hunt that chance down.”
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