(Cricket news) Ravichandran Ashwin became India’s second bowler to take 500 wickets in Test cricket when he had Zak Crawley caught by Rajat Patidar on Day 2 of the Rajkot Test on Friday. Post the day’s play, he spoke exclusively to JioCinema, fielding questions from JioCinema and Sports18 expert Anil Kumble, the man who is the country’s highest wicket-taker in the longest format of the game, with 619 wickets. Excerpts:
R Ashwin on his evolution as a player: The desire to excel hasn’t changed. I want to keep evolving as a cricketer. That’s something which has stayed organic to me right through my club cricket days in Chennai. Ever since I picked up the red ball, the first question that hung in front of me was whether I was a good enough red-ball bowler, because a lot of people perceived that I had come through the IPL.
But the hard yards I put in during club cricket made a lot of difference coming in as a Test bowler. I don’t think I was a finished product as a Test bowler when I started off, but with the help of the seniors and all my coaches I have learnt a lot. More than people who teach you, there are critics and I firmly believe that critics take you very high. If you take criticism in the right way and put in the right effort, I think excellence is the only way you can go up through.
Ashwin on the most difficult phase of his career: Life has been about ups and downs. Honestly, the lowest part of my life was between 2018-19. I was the ICC Cricketer of The Year, I was on top of the world. From there, to go to a really bottomless pit was a very, very dark time in my life. Generally, I am not someone who is fazed by the downs in life. When I have a really good day, I have dinner, talk to my wife, talk to my parents, watch a good movie and go to sleep. That’s my way of celebrating a really good day. So, when I am down, I don’t really get beaten by it. I want to come out on the other side of it. There’s always something to learn when you have had bad days, said Ashwin.
But that phase was a really, really, dark tunnel for me. I don’t know what hit me and how I got placed there. Injuries followed, and then when I thought it was almost done, the world got hit by the pandemic. That gave me a really good reflection of where I stood in life, what I wanted to play for, find new meanings for what this game stood for me. This game is all I love and I thought I had lost the love before that. And, I somehow managed to rediscover it.
Ashwin on what the 500-mark means to him: I would be lying if I said 500 wickets don’t mean anything. It does. At the moment it has not sunk in. But I said, 2020 onwards, the way I look at the game, the way my life has been, has been very different to what it was before that. I have definitely rediscovered the joy of playing the sport again and I am sure a lot of cricketers who played the game for a long time will vouch for that. For me, the rediscovery of the joy of playing the game is the highest point and the greatest unravelling of who I am.
Anil Kumble, JioCinema and Sports18 expert, on R Ashwin’s achievement: It’s an outstanding achievement. It started 13 years ago in 2011-12 against the West Indies and from there it’s not easy to live up to those expectations. Ninety-eight Test matches, 500 wickets is an outstanding achievement. In terms of the strike rate, he has a record like a fast bowler. To be able to do that day-in-day-out for so many years is something outstanding. He has been brilliant with the Indian team for so long and there’s a little bit of challenge in this Test, but he’s someone who will work things out. He needs to savour this achievement because it took so long to get to this stage.
Kumble on Ashwin’s success as an off-spinner: You want your bowlers to evolve. It’s the same off-spin. You know that the ball is going to turn, you know that it’s coming off the hand as an off-spinner, but there are subtle variations you need to keep doing for the batter to keep him in check. And that’s something Ashwin has done throughout his career where he has been really deceptive. I can’t remember any batter who has taken him on and destroyed him.
Aakash Chopra, JioCinema and Sports18 expert, on Ashwin’s feat: Personally I felt he won’t achieve this much in Test cricket. It was always believed that T20 openers and spinners won’t succeed in Test cricket. The skill requirements for both formats are very different and this will be a problem in the game, but he has achieved his greatness by defying people.
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