Ravichandran Ashwin, who played recently before retirement as a spinner for India, said that Virat tried to give some advice to young pacer Akash Deep in the 2024-25 Border-Gavaskar Trophy in regard to the strategy against Steve Smith, but it backfired. However, Ashwin said Kohli “didn’t understand” Akash and thus could not help him build on a spell.
Akash’s debut in Australia came in the Third Test in Gabba after India lost the previous game in Adelaide, where Harshit Rana could not claim a wicket and was dropped. The Bengal pacer was on song, but with 29.5 overs to his name it was only a late wicket of wicketkeeper Alex Carey that he had to show for his quality spell, drawing several false shots off Smith and others. Smith recovered from his early scratchiness and converted it to score a promising 101 (190).
Ashwin was recalling at the AWS AI Conclave 2025 in Bengaluru, “Akash Deep was on hella a roll at the Gabba.” “He may have had some of his best deliveries going while Bumrah did not have that wonderful four-over spell. I was watching him from outside. He saw Virat run up to him and say, ‘seedha daalo, yaar, seedha daalo!’ [bowling straight]. Immediately a fielder came in and went on to leg gully. Aakash Deep bowled the ball on the body and a couple of balls to the leg side and got flicked and pulled. So his rhythm was going awry.”
“In Virat’s head, he thought that was uncomfortable for him, so if you do that to Smith, then you should be able to get him out. If you don’t understand a bowler, this is what happens. But while you understand a bowler, you know he was going through a good spell build on that spell,” added he.
Smith had a combination for a long period with Travis Head, who scored 152 (160) from the other end. Australia got all out for 445 and caught India off-guard in their second innings, bowling them out for 260.
India has managed to pull back from 89/7 in the third elections of Australian innings, and Australia declared too, but by that time, rain wasted too sticky time in the game. The match befell into a draw. Ashwin announced his retirement from international cricket post which he left with an amazing structure that has left him as India’s second-highest wicket-taker.
Akash was able to take only five wickets in the whole two-match Test series while for Smith, it was 314 runs in nine innings.
