LONDON: Senior India off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin said that he was asked to be ready for the second Test against England due to the prevailing heatwave in London but the steady showers on match day put a spanner on his hopes of making it to the playing XI.
India persisted with their four pacer strategy which worked well as 19 wickets were picked up in 151-run victory.
"What was the weather forecast for the match? Heatwave. The funny thing was, before the match, they were telling me, Heat wave, neenga readya irunga (meaning there's a Heat wave. You please be ready mate. You might play)."
"When we came to have breakfast, it was pouring...," he said on his YouTube show 'KuttyStory' with Indian fielding coach R Sridhar, adding "weather is not in our hands."
He was apparently referring to his not being picked keeping the weather conditions in mind.
Sridhar, in response to a question, said the team had a "great bowling attack" and "to keep the world's best spinner out of the XI is not easy."
Discussing the 151-run win at Lord's which gave India a 1-0 lead in the five-Test series, the two agreed that openers - Rohit Sharma and K L Rahul played a key role.
"Rahul came out and played like a dream," Ashwin said of his getting into the team following an injury to state-mate Mayank Agarwal in the nets.
Meanwhile, Sridhar said, "Rahul was the 4th opener going into the series, but his preparation has been extraordinary. I have been feeding him a lot of throwdowns.
"He has found some way to score runs in England as an opener, even back in 2018 where he scored a 100 in Oval," he added.