Joe Root has stated that the veteran Indian off-spinner R Ashwin is a constant threat who rarely believes in the concept of wearing the opposition down. He mentioned this during an interview with English sports media:
"Ashwin is always trying to find ways of getting you out rather than trying to wear you down, over long periods of time."
"He uses creases differently from traditional off-spinners. He uses over-spin, side-spin, can get really tight to the stumps, can go wider and he has got the carrom ball, you know, a lot of different tricks."
"So, you will have to be really wary of different threats that he poses and make sure that you have very good skill sets to counter (him) and be on top of him."
"Ashwin is making sure that you don't play the previous ball. He is very good at trying to drag you across the crease and get your head to one side of it and beat both edges quite frequently."
"There are different things to contend with because of his seam position and how cleverly he can move around the shiny side that has got some extra skid."
"So, you have to make sure that you are in position a little bit quicker. He can also drift the ball away and bring the slip fielder into play."
Root also offered a comparison between Ashwin and Nathan Lyon:
"With Lyon it is all about, I think, especially in the first half of the Test match, to get over the top of the ball, get the bowl bounce, knee roll high, in between and try to bring short leg and leg slip into the game as much as he can."
"Then just slowly, get slower with his pace and drift wider into that. There are those footmarks, you know, Mitchell Starc has so kindly done for him for such a long period of time."
