'The only reasoning I see is...' Ashwin explains why England didn't declare in second innings

Seasoned off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin feels England wanted to give their bowlers a decent amount of time to recover before bowling in the second innings of the first Test against India. England didn`t declare even after having a lead of more than 400 runs and the visitors weren`t even looking to score runs at a quick pace before they folded up for 178/10.

Former Australia spinner Shane Warne was surprised with the visitors` decision to not declare and was also fumed at England`s slow approach with the bat on day four of the first Test.

England’s mindset is let’s not lose this test match - rather than, what’s the best way to win this test match and how many overs could we need ! This batting on decision is now putting a lot of pressure on England’s bowlers and particularly their spinners !

— Shane Warne (@ShaneWarne) February 8, 2021

"I think the approach was something that we probably expected that they would try and put 430 on board. So we were also trying to manage our overs accordingly. I am not really sure what went inside their dressing room but I feel the bowlers being tired and again come out to bowl a spell, all these things factored in so it`s their management call," said Ashwin in a virtual press conference on Monday.

Earlier in the day, after being bowled out for 337, India gave the visitors a lead of 241 runs but England did not decide to enforce the follow on and the side sent out Rory Burns and Dominic Sibley to score runs at a brisk pace.

Ashwin feels the visitors wanted to start afresh with their bowlers which could be the possible reason to not enforce the follow on day four of the first Test.

"They had two options in front of them in the morning. They could have asked us to follow on or bat themselves. The only reasoning I could see is that they wanted to give a bit of rest to their bowlers which is a part of their game. Because sometimes fresh bowlers can do the trick more than tired bowlers that`s all I can say," Ashwin explained.

England skipper Joe Root wasn`t able to score big as he did in the first innings of the opening Test."First, let me tell you, he (Root) was not sweeping a lot against me. We had plans in place for him off my bowling, where he didn`t get a lot of runs. In the second innings, he couldn`t get the same kind of runs, the pitch got slower and slower, which made him tough for him to score off the sweep," said Ashwin.

Washington Sundar played an unbeaten knock of 85 runs to cut England's lead in the first innings.

Talking about Washington`s knock, Ashwin said, "We actually did believe that we could wipe down the follow-on and even get closer to their target, we just needed to pick our battles properly. For me, the ball bounced a bit too much."

"Playing spin is one facet of the game that players growing here will be good with, Washi is quite a special batsmen. He played really well and has been playing like for some time," he added.

Meanwhile, India need 381 more runs on the final day to win the first Test against England. At stumps on day four, India`s score read 39/1, with Shubman Gill (15*) and Cheteshwar Pujara (12*) on the field. Ashwin picked six wickets, restricting England to a very low total in the second innings and with this, a target of 420 runs was set for the hosts.