Ravichandran Ashwin focuses on playing with freedom and that is what has yielded him success lately with the bat too in Test cricket. If not for his counter-attacking 50-ball 46, India would have fallen well short of 200 on Day I of the second Test.

“In between somewhere for a couple of years, I had been trying to get very technically right to try and build on scores.

“Even before, I’ve always batted at a good pace and there has been no conscious effort to go out and keep playing those shots. For me, I can get into positions from where I can play those shots which some of the other specialist batters may not be able to play. But this freedom is what has given me success in the past,” Ashwin said later on Monday.

“However, it’s still about choosing correctly and getting the flow of my hands right, which I think I have been able to get back since the Australia tour (in 2020-21). Vikram Rathour (batting coach) has been very helpful in this regard.

“Besides, every batsman is different and you have to skin the cat the way you feel it. Also, when you go in to bat, you need a bit of luck to go your way, which (Dean) Elgar had,” the off-spinner added.

Agreeing that India fell “a bit short” of the par-score (250-plus) in their first innings on a tricky Wanderers wicket, Ashwin believes the bowling group can still “definitely make something out of” the 202 the visitors are defending. He also hopes pacer Mohammed Siraj would be able to return to bowling on Day II.

Praising stand-in captain KL Rahul for a hard-earned 50, Ashwin said: “He has found the solutions to the questions he probably thought he needed to respond to.”