R Ashwin bats at 10 for first time in his Test career | Cricket News

R Ashwin alongside his willy off-spin is also known for his masterful stroke-making and elegance with the bat. Many times coming down the order he chipped in with some crucial innings. However, Saturday saw a rare occurrence when the 38-year-old batted at the number 10 position for the first time in his 105-matches Test career.
Ashwin has batted only once at 10 in his entire international career which was in 2011 in a T20 game against England. For the majority of his Test career, the batter has batted at number eight where he scored 1977 runs at an average of 26.01 scoring two Test tons. However, his best performances as batter came when he played at number six where he scored 531 runs at an average of 35.40 from 15 innings.

Manjrekar’s sharp criticism on batting order shuffle
India’s batting order was quite unique for the first innings of the third Test against New Zealand at the Wankhede Stadium. Partly because of (a failed move) promoting Mohammed Siraj to No 4 as the nightwatchman but also for a perceived tactic of keeping a left hand-right hand combination in the middle. As a result, when Rishabh Pant fell in the first session on Day 3, Ravindra Jadeja walked out to bat ahead of Sarfaraz Khan and it didn’t please Sanjay Manjrekar.
While Jadeja has been one of India’s best batters in Tests recently, the tactical switch pushed Sarfaraz — an out and out batter who had a great first-class record at his home ground in Mumbai — to No 8.
“A guy in form, has 3 fifties in his first 3 Tests, gets 150 in the Bangalore Test, a good player of spin, pushed back in the order to keep left & right combination? Makes no sense. Sarfraz now walking in at no 8! Poor call India,” read Manjrekar’s post on X.