NEWS
Follow UsIndia not playing R Ashwin in the World Test Championship final against Australia at The Oval was a blunder, but the 36-year-old said he is at that stage of his career where it won’t take him too long to move on from the setback. In fact, the spin-bowling all-rounder doesn’t see it as a setback but feels it was just a “stumbling block”.
India went with Ravindra Jadeja and four seamers, a move that didn't quite go in their favour. The Oval surface offered decent amount of turn, with Jadeja claiming four wickets and Nathan Lyon taking five. What would have helped Ashwin's case even more is Australia had five left-handers in their line-up, a match-up that he has always enjoyed.
“I would have loved to play because I have played a part in us getting there. Even in the last final I got four wickets and bowled really well,” Ashwin, who is captaining Dindigul Dragons in the ongoing TNPL, told the Indian Express. “Ever since 2018-19, my bowling overseas has been fantastic and I have managed to win games for the team.
“I am looking at it as a captain or coach and I’m just talking in hindsight, in their defence. So the last time when we were in England, it was 2-2 with a drawn Test and they would have felt 4 pacers and 1 spinner is the combination in England. That is what they might have thought going into the final.
“The problem is for a spinner to come into play, it must be the fourth innings. The fourth innings is a very crucial facet and for us to be able to put that amount of runs so the spinner can come into play, it’s completely a mindset thing.
“For me, it’s not a setback. It’s just a stumbling block, I’ll move on because I have gone through that. When somebody knocks you down for the first time, you have a knee-jerk reaction. I think you should be knocked down once in a while along your life so that you are used to it and will know how to bounce back. That’s what life is.”
Former India captain Sunil Gavaskar recently said there are different rules for batters and bowlers. Gavaskar said the management wouldn’t have dropped a top-ranked batter if he hadn’t got runs in certain conditions in the past, and Ashwin couldn’t agree more.
“This is a true story and I don’t talk from something made up. One day, I was seeing the India-Sri Lanka game and India’s bowling was in tatters. My favourite was Sachin Tendulkar, and whatever runs he used to make we used to leak those runs with the ball,” said Ashwin.
“I used to think one day, I must be a bowler. Can’t I be better than the bowlers that are there currently? This is a very childish way to think but that is how I thought and that is why I started bowling off-spin. This is where it began.
“However, tomorrow when I hang up my boots, the first thing I will regret is having been such a fine batter, I should have never become a bowler. This perception I have constantly tried to fight, but there are different yardsticks for bowlers and batters. And there are different ways of treatment. I understand for the batter it is a one-ball game and they require the opportunity.
“I had this conversation with a stalwart of the game who once said it is because you can see a bowler struggling in a Test match for over 40 overs. But my argument is you are seeing a batsman struggle in the match and nets and the requirement of a batter doesn’t change.
“It is still a one-ball game. I’m not saying the batter shouldn’t play. He should play and similarly, the bowler must also play. They should be treated equally because I think at the end of the day, you’re earning your stripes and I definitely believed through the ups and downs of my career, I have kept turning in and earned my stripes.”
Ashwin said he is a lot more relaxed now and is happy with the current version of himself. “I’m a lot more chilled than I used to be. A lot more relaxed in my life than I ever have been. Sitting here today, I realise how much of a toll it had taken on me mentally to the point where I was traumatised. But I am very glad to have come through that and discovered a new me.”
