Life is not always fair. There are times when you are let down for no fault of yours and the onus is on you to redeem yourself. And in world cricket at present, nobody would relate to this more than senior India off-spinner R Ashwin. The Tamil Nadu bowler, despite being one of the best spinners the nation has produced, is often dropped from Tests due to inexplicable reasons. But he always fights back and that is why he is regarded as a modern-day great.
In an interview with teammate Shreyas Iyer for BCCI.tv, Ashwin made a staggering revelation, admitting that he was crossroads last year and didn’t know if he would ever done the whites again. For him to make this statement, hours after surpassing Harbhajan Singh to become the third-highest wicket-taker in Tests for India, speaks volumes of the struggles that stars have to go through.
The 35-year-old Ashwin, who took his 419th wicket in his 80th Test to surpass Harbhajan (417 in 103 Tests) on Monday, said got very candid with Iyer in a chat.
“To be very modest about what is happening in my life and my career over the last couple of years, I did not know if I would go on to play Test cricket when we were in the pandemic, in the lockdown,” Ashwin said.
“I had not played (India’s) last Test in Christchurch (which began on February 29, 2020). I was standing at the crossroads thinking whether I would play Tests again, where is my future headed, do I get in to the Test team which is the only format I am playing. But God has been kind and I have been able to turn things around,” he said.
“I then shifted to Delhi Capitals when you (Shreyas) were captain and things have changed ever since,” he said in the interview shared by BCCI’s official Twitter handle.
The video was uploaded after India and New Zealand played out a dramatic draw in Kanpur. Needing 280 runs to win with 9 wickets in hand on a Day 5 pitch in India, the Kiwis managed to bat through the day as the final pairing of Rachin Ravindra and Ajaz Patel batted for 51 balls.
Talking about the game, Ashwin said, ” After the game, it is still sinking in, the fact that we could not win, we were so close yet so far. It’s a tough thing to get over for me.
“It happened once in Jamaica where we could not cross the line, on the last day we were trying to force a victory but could not get it. It takes some time for me especially as a bowler bowling in the last innings, but it just did not happen today,” said Ashwin.
