R Ashwin remains tight-lipped over debate of India having designated Test centres

India may have overcome the poor drainage facilities to win the 2nd Test against Bangladesh, but the debate over having designated Test venues continues. India’s ace spinner, Ravichandran Ashwin, who claimed his 11th Player of the Series award in red-ball cricket, weighed in on the issue. While he refrained from commenting on whether India should have specific Test centres, calling it ‘above his pay grade,’ the conversation remains ongoing. The idea of designated Test venues was initially proposed by Virat Kohli during his tenure as India’s Test captain. Kohli believed that visiting teams should expect challenging conditions and intense atmospheres at these venues. Back in 2019, Ashwin supported this idea as well.
“Firstly, the benefits that Indian cricketers attain by having so many Test centres is you have got cricketers who come and play Test cricket from every nook and corner of this country. It is a huge country and it has triggered that sort of urgency and that sort of passion amongst cricketers to be able to come and play for this country. That is a big positive.”
Ashwin welcomed the idea of the stadium hosting India’s Test matches. However, he admitted that the quality and facilities provided by the respective venue is also important.
“The second of it is there are certain requisite ingredients that go into making a Test match happen. Like for the weather and the kind of drainage that we need to be able to invest in. These are no-brainers.”
Two consecutive days of the Test match between India and Bangladesh were washed out without a single ball bowled due to a wet outfield. Bangladesh had batted for 35 overs on Day 1 before rain intervened. Unfortunately, Day 2 and Day 3-key weekend days-saw no play despite the absence of rain during those days. The rain stopped at 10 am IST on Saturday, and there was no rain on Sunday morning either, but overnight showers left the outfield soggy.
This raised serious concerns about the drainage and infrastructure at Green Park, one of India’s oldest Test venues. It was the first time since the Bengaluru Test in November 2015 that two successive days were lost to weather conditions. In that match, which also ended in a draw, rain was much heavier compared to Kanpur.
Images of ground staff using outdated methods to dry the outfield on Sunday went viral. Despite the sun coming out in the afternoon, officials deemed the outfield unplayable due to wet patches that posed potential injury risks to players.
He gave Australia’s example and how it becomes easier as a visiting team to know the conditions of the venues beforehand.
“Does it help a player if you have just a few test centres? Most certainly it does. Because when we go to Australia, they play India only at five test centres. They don’t play us at the Manuka Oval in Canberra. They don’t play us at any of the other venues there. They won’t be very familiar with the conditions. So do England. They have certain select Test centres and that’s where they play. Some of those are only white ball centres.”
“Can we do it here? That’s above my pay grade. I cannot comment on that,” he concluded.”