Art of conditioning: R Ashwin's take on why it's vital that team India encounters different environments

Just when every other Indian bowler had a wicket to his name including part-timer Yuvraj Singh against Pakistan in a low-scoring encounter, India's premier bowler Ravichandran Ashwin had none. He was also the most expensive, conceding 21 runs in his three overs.

But that is just a one-off as only a fortnight earlier, he had the best bowling figures by an Indian in T20I (4/8 against Sri Lanka in Visakhapatnam). Such has been the nature of the pitch at Sher-e-Bangla Stadium in Dhaka that there has been little on offer for the spinners. And, it is not expected to change when India take on Sri Lanka in their third game on tournament on Tuesday.

The medium-pacers have been among the wickets with spinners from all the teams struggling. Ashwin is no different. But, even as captain MS Dhoni sounded unhappy about the nature of wickets on offer, Ashwin did not have any complaints.

"It is very important to know what conditions are thrown at you," Ashwin said on the eve of the game on Monday. "You can't try and beat the conditions. It is very important to go back and understand that it will not spin a lot on these surfaces. That's why it is even more imperative that we try to bowl in good lengths, get away with our overs rather than looking to go for wickets.

"In T20 format, it is the pressure that gives you wickets rather than exact skill of the ball. That's what I look to do and when there is any window to attack, I will attack irrespective of the wicket. It's T20 cricket, we might have slower, flatter wickets in World T20. We have to understand the situation rather than complaining about it. Testing ourselves in various environments is good for us," the Tamil Nadu off-spinner added.

"It's their (home team's) choice as to what kind of wickets they want. We came thinking that the wickets will be slow but international teams need to adapt to whatever surfaces are thrown at them. Hopefully, it has given us a dress rehearsal of how to bat lower down the order," he said.

When India met Sri Lanka for the first time this year, in Pune on February 9, the inexperienced visitors surprised by bowling India out for 101 on a green top. Ashwin had top-scored with an unbeaten 31 in that game. However, India went down by five wickets.

"The mistakes we did in Pune, we have definitely learnt from it," Ashwin said. "It is all about how smart you are pacing the innings. We have played great T20 cricket in the past few months and we are trying to iron whatever little jinx we have and or how better we can get – the 11 in the team and the four outside."

Ashwin also agreed that emergence of Jasprit Bumrah and Ashish Nehra with the new ball has helped the spinners a lot.

"It's nice if we can punch as a group. Ashish is experienced and had a very good IPL. He can swing the ball upfront and bowl at death. Bumrah has a unique action, bowls lethal yorkers and it gives us huge confidence to go about in the middle-overs with a lot of attacking instinct," he said.

Rohit unlikely to play, doubts remain over Dhawan
Nursing a toe injury, Rohit Sharma on Monday skipped the team's training session and is likely to miss Tuesday's match against Sri Lanka. His opening partner Shikhar Dhawan and skipper MS Dhoni did train, though. Dhoni had a knock during the two-and-a-half-hour net session. Dhawan hit the nets but did not have the usual sprightly strides that one normally associates with the Delhi left-hander. He took a few catches, did a bit of shadow batting and was the last one to come out to bat in fading light.

Want rematch with India in final: Malik
Pakistan's Shoaib Malik said he and his teammates are keen to set up a rematch with India in the final. "I think we failed to read the pitch and conditions properly against India and instead of adapting ourselves we committed hara-kiri by trying to play overly attacking shots," he said. "We want to play India in the final again and we know we can do well against them. It is all a matter of just adapting to the different conditions here."