Ravichandran Ashwin was adjudged Player-of-the-Match in India’s 280-run victory over Bangladesh in the first Test match at the MA Chidambaram Stadium, Chennai.

The spin all-rounder took six wickets and scored his 6th Test hundred, helping the hosts claim an unbeatable 1-0 lead in the two-match series.

After the game, Ashwin reflected on his exceptional figures of 6/88 in Bangladesh’s second innings at Chepauk, known for its pacer-friendly characteristics due to steep bounce.

"Look, I think this pitch, even if you bowl good balls, you will go for runs. But the bounce is going to be quite daunting. The beauty about red soil is you put revs on it, there is value and there is bounce," Ashwin told reporters in the post-match press meet, as quoted by PTI.

The seasoned off-spinner expressed his preference for playing on red-soil pitches over black-soil ones.

"You play on some black clay surfaces around the country, and without naming them, you have to do a lot of hard work, put a lot of revs and see nothing come out of it," Ashwin said.

He elaborated, "Sometimes it's better to not put revs on it in certain places. So, to even understand all these, and talk about it is a fair amount of learning for me. It's happened over the years. Like I said, this one's got solid bounce. I will any day play on a surface like this and get hit than play on other surfaces."

Ashwin emphasized that red-soil pitches have historically been crucial for Test cricket in India.

"The surfaces react very differently at different times of the year. We've lost a lot of red soil pitches over the years, which was a key component of playing Test cricket in India."

He called for preserving pitch variety rather than standardizing them. "Sometimes around the country, people do make the mistake of terming India as a whole. I actually think India has a lot of foreign soil in its own nature. Sometimes, you go to Eden, it doesn't feel home. Then you go to Dharamshala, all of a sudden, it doesn't feel home."

Ashwin also addressed misconceptions about Indian tracks, highlighting their diverse nature. "For some wild reason, people don't seem to assimilate this because the nature of soil is different, the weather is different," he said.

"It's not like Australia where every Boxing Day Test match happens at Melbourne. We don't do that. The Pongal Test doesn't happen in Chennai always," he concluded.

(With PTI Inputs)