'Playing with flair like Rishabh Pant: R Ashwin reveals inspiration behind dominant ton in India vs Bangladesh Test'

In the latest update, India finished the day at Stumps with a strong total of 339/6 in 80 overs. The highlight of the day was Ashwin's magnificent century, scoring an unbeaten 102 runs off just 112 balls. His innings included 10 boundaries and two maximums, entertaining the home crowd at the MA Chidambaram Stadium. On the other hand, Jadeja played a brilliant supporting role, remaining not out on 86 runs off 117 deliveries. India will look to build on this solid foundation in the upcoming day of play.

Speaking after the final session on Thursday, Ashwin revealed that his approach was inspired by Rishabh Pant's usual batting style. "Worked on a few things and on a surface like this with a bit of spice, if you're going after the ball, might as well go after it really hard like Rishabh does. It's an old Chennai surface with a bit of bounce and carry. The red soil pitch allows you to play a few shots if you are willing to just get in line and give it a bit of a tonk when there's width," he said.

Over the past year, Ashwin has been putting in extra work on his batting. He even travelled to Seattle to study baseball mechanism in both bat and ball.

Predicting the pitch's behaviour for Day 2, Ashwin said, "It's a typical, old-fashioned Chennai pitch where overspin will fetch a bit of bounce. The wicket will start doing its tricks much later in the game. There's enough in it for the quicks, good carry, good bounce if we present the seam nice and hard. The new ball will do a bit, there'll be some help for the bowlers, we'll have to start afresh tomorrow. There's a bit in the pitch, it's still damp underneath, so hopefully as it dries out, it quickens up."