We didn’t seize initiative: Ashwin

“I think this is a game where we would have liked to finish on the winning side. No doubt about it but there are a lot of things we can feel proud of at the end of this game, it’s a long Test series so to feel defeated or pained so early on in the series is unfair and at the moment it is all about the feelings that I am bringing out, and I don’t feel that bad about it as of now because I thought we competed really well and made two comebacks and probably didn’t close out the game when the initiative was on our side. That’s something that can happen when you are traveling so we are upbeat about it,” said Ashwin.

“Like Virat keeps mentioning, when you make runs and pick up wickets, you want to make sure that it is a killer blow and you want to end up on the winning side. It gives you more pleasure out of the game and when it doesn’t happen you feel a little deflated about it. But as I told you before, this game was like a see-saw battle and there was enough in there for the quicks and it was doing quite a bit.”

Ashwin himself has plenty of reasons to be proud of. He turned in a superlative performance with the ball, ending with seven wickets in the match.

“For me, it’s all about this mental space I find myself in. I don’t dwell much into the way I have bowled, it is in the past as of now. It is important to try and learn from this game and take it to the next game. These are not conditions that are extremely suitable or tailor made for a spinner so I would like to take confidence out of this game and try and move ahead and build on this.”