After sitting out of the fourth Test against Australia at the Gabba in Brisbane due to a tweak in his back, off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin turned anchor for BCCI's channel after the third days play. Ashwin interviewed the stars of the third day for India in a candid chat - Washington Sundar and Shardul Thakur - and also got his fellow Tamilian T Natarajan for an interview along with the duo.
When asked about finally getting off the mark after scoring zero runs in his last 10 innings in First-class cricket, Natarajan laghed and also shared how he felt blocking away a whole over by the tall left-arm pacer Mitchell Starc.
Asked if he was comfotable facing Starc, Natarajan said that he dind't even see the first ball he faced from him. As the left-arm debutant said this, along with him both Ashwin and Sundar too were in splits from his response.
.
Natarajan stayed unbeaten on 1 as Moahmmed Siraj was the last man to be dismissed by Josh Hazlewood, who was one of his five wickets.
'The six was instinctive'
Among the interviewees was one of the batting stars of the day, Shardul Thakur. Asked about starting his Test career batting with a six, Thakur said, "At that point of time, I didn't look to hit six, it was more of a reaction. I saw the ball and played the shot instinctively."
Sundar was also asked how did he feel from the non-striker's end about Thakur's second six to bring up his fifty, he said that he knew that six was coming as according to him, Thakur was very eager to get to his fifty."
Thakur was also praised by Ashwin for his Vivian Richards-esque cover drives on which he said that he isn't used to playing such shots and it was a kind of day where everything was working for him and he made the most of it. Sundar on the other hand, opined that Test cricket is the toughest format when he was asked if it was easy as he started off his career with three wickets and a half-century.
Thakur and Sundar added 123 runs for the 7th wicket as India reduced Australia's lead to just 33 runs in the first innings before the hosts started their second innings on a strong note without losing any wickets.
