Brook had failed to read a Chakravarthy googly during the first T20I at Kolkata with him getting a thin edge onto his pad before the ball hit the stumps at an individual score of 17. In Chennai Brook fell to a flighted delivery by Chakravarthy with the ball hitting the top of the off-stump. Brook could only make 13 in Chennai and Ashwin urged Brook to understand that ‘You have not been able to read Varun’s googly yet’. “Once, you (Harry Brook) moved to the leg stump and could not read the delivery. So you were clean bowled. Then you covered the stumps (in Chennai) and took a big stride but could not read the googly once again and got clean bowled. When the ball is leaving Varun’s hands, it’s obvious that it will be a googly. Lighting could be like anything but if you cannot read the googly then you are not reading it. So you should keep in your mind that you have not been able to read Varun’s googly yet,” Ashwin added.

While England Livingstone failed to open his account at Kolkata falling to Chakravarthy’s googly, the all-rounder showed some resistance against Chakravarthy. Brydon Carse smashed Chakravarthy for two sixes during his 31-run knock before he got run out and Ashwin praised the two England batsmen for showing how to play Chakravarthy.

“In Eden Gardens, Livingstone showed all the three stumps and could not read the googly and got bowled. But in Chennai, he covered the off-stump and three stumps and pulled all the balls towards leg stump. That strategy worked well for Livingstone and he benefited from that. One more batsman who faced Varun Chakravarthy well was Brydon Carse. He was getting on to off-stump and playing square off the wicket. The ball bounces more in Chepauk and if the ball skids, such strategy would not work. Varun has high arm action and his googly over spins so he gets bounce almost at every surface. But to face his bounce without using feet or without utilising the depth of crease or not to use square off the wicket shots will cause trouble and you will be stuck,” said Ashwin.