Immense depth of knowledge, amazing foresight in Rahul Dravid: Ashwin

Ravichandran Ashwin last played for India Blues in July 2017 before being called back in India’s T20 squad for the ICC T20 World Cup. No wonder the veteran offspinner was turning his hand in the pre-match warm-up as the team went out of the park in the aftermath of their tournament-opener vs Pakistan.

Also, Ashwin was sold right through the Test series in England, playing for India for the first time since the World Test Championship.

Ashwin finally got his chance against Afghanistan on Friday, thanks to Varun Chakravarthy’s calf strain. After returning with a flawless spell of 2/14 in his four overs, Ashwin, the outspoken speaker, opened up on his long wait at a press conference on Thursday. Edited excerpt:

Can you tell us what it was really like to get a game for India in the Blues after four years, and given the awkward situation the team finds itself in?

The news of my selection in the World Cup was very gratifying. I had fun after hearing the news and I had fun in terms of enjoying what I wanted to achieve in life. So, that was one side of it. I had a special dream of going to the World Cup, wanted to do something special for the team. After a time, more than trying to prove someone else right or wrong, it’s about trying to prove oneself and also achieve something for the team.

Unfortunately, after the first two defeats, I felt a little low about it and didn’t have a particular feeling. It’s never a special feeling when you lose a game. There might have been a slight dent in the chances of qualifying. But even after yesterday’s win, we still keep our fingers crossed and hope that things go well. Other than that, it was a very special night. Everything I wanted to execute fell into place. Yes, it was a special night for me.

How difficult is it for a accomplished artist like you to stay motivated after sitting out because of team composition? How does a champion player like you cope with such a long absence that is not your fault?

Fortunately, I believe that life is a cycle. For some people it is small. For some people this is too big, which is definitely not in our hands. For me, understanding the battles in my life and career is something that I have come across very well over the years.

I had to go through some long periods of stillness whenever I had a really nice spread pattern of good form, or whenever it was the other way around, I once had some deep streaks. I don’t want to read too much into why that silence happened, but it’s definitely a pattern I’ve adopted in my life.

So being humble during good times and success is a statement that many people make and many in my fraternity do, but I have persevered, and I have lived it. I believe that success, like on one hand you get success in cricket 30% of the time in your career and luck is also important at some stage of this career. Who am I? I am no different. That’s why I embrace it.

The easiest way to cope with it and go through that kind of professional circle is to keep preparing, keep working hard, just hoping an opportunity will come to your door one day. And when that happens, you have all the options of breaking open doors and breaking open latches and locks. That’s just life.

So keep preparing for those days as that day will come. It’s so easy to lose motivation and lose hope and close those doors and just hide behind it and complain, but that’s something I definitely wouldn’t do.

For me, it is not about what the game has given me, it is about what I have given to the game and how much I enjoy playing the game. You put three stumps anywhere and asked me to play a game at this stage of my life, I would do it with the happiest of times.

As a spinner, how do you maintain a balance between taking wickets and not letting the run rate drop?

I am trying one, many people who are really consuming this game and also giving expert opinion on the game, I feel sorry for them sometimes because I am playing this format from year 2017 , and every few years, the game leaves our realm and teaches us something because the game is so fast paced that people are trying to get a 1% profit through the various techniques it introduces itself.

I think the understanding of the game is still backward in many ways. To me, when you call a bowler and say he has to take wickets, they are talking about length. There are different player plans for fastballers. There is a different plan for spinners. And there are certain lengths that a bowler cannot afford to bowl like he bowls in a Test match, especially for a spinner.

Often, taking wickets is something that is seen to be done, but it is not. A lot of experts and intelligent people who have played this game say that cricket is a game of partnership. For every wicket chosen by the bowler, there is an over that is bowled either before or after that wicket is made. So we need to understand it. And every wicket that falls in the middle over is the result of a few dot balls played by the batsman or bowled by another bowler.

I guess I expect too much from people watching the game, but that’s exactly how I play the game. I can’t escape my responsibility of bowling dot balls or bowling economical, but in the process, if I am getting wickets, I am getting wickets. I also have to keep in mind the interest of the team and what the team expects from me on that particular ball.

I get 24 events in a game, and these are cliche words used by people both inside and outside the team, but I take it very seriously. 24 events, and I have to win every event. And what is victory? That win is directly related to what my team needs. It’s not what I want.

It is easy for me to throw the ball up in search of wickets, but remember that every T20 match is won by a margin of two runs or by a margin of one ball or two balls. So I have to be mindful of every single ball that I bowl.

You talked about life and going in circles. After more than four years, yesterday the two traditional finger spinners played for India once again in a limited overs game. Would you say it was the completion of a circle?

I do not know. Circles are never complete. They keep running in a loop. I can’t really say that the cycle has come and all that.

I think the notion of finger spin needs to change. From 2017 onwards I was going through a very good phase of my Test career, and I felt like I was bowling amazing stock balls at that time. I didn’t need to do anything else at that time.

But like I said, the circles stop. There are stations everywhere, and that Champions Trophy final was one of those stations where I had to stop and think about my career. Since then I have evolved into a T20 bowler. I have bowled a lot more balls than the people who are calling them carrom balls and off spin and arm balls. But they are very subtle. I’m trying to make different angles to create different seam positions.

The ball on which I dismissed Gulbadin Naib yesterday was something other than a cannon ball. That’s why I worked on it. I have a lot more options than I used to have at the time.

When I bowl for the right arm, I think like a left arm spinner or a leg spinner. When I bowl to a left-hander, I think like an off-spinner. So thinking creates intention and intention eventually turns into practice and then goes into a game.

There’s a lot of work to be done there. This is just the concept of what I need to change.

How are you looking at the appointment of Rahul Dravid as the head coach of the Indian cricket team?

I think Rahul has immense depth of knowledge and best wishes for whatever he has done in life. He has an amazing vision, someone who has been through tough years, I would say. At a time when people, in order to play the game at the highest level, believe they can contribute to teams by becoming coaches.

Rahul Dravid has gone through the journey and grind of being in TNCA while going through the Indian team. I think he knows what’s in store, what’s in the future, who’s playing right now. He has played with some of us inside this dressing room. He also knows all the young boys.

If there is anyone from where you can draw every knowledge from which you can draw, it is Rahul. I am really looking forward to contributing with Rahul and trying to be useful to the team in any way possible.

What’s going on in the dressing room regarding the qualification scenario after scoring two points against Afghanistan?

I think there is hardly any discussion in this regard because what we need to discuss is how are we going to go about some of the games that we have left, and everyone is planning and going about the last two. Wants to go to real heights. This is something that is not under our control. It’s fingers crossed.

It’s a fun game and Afghanistan has played good cricket. We also have a lot of expectations from him. All the best to them. I really wish if we could provide any material support for them to play well in the park, and that’s all we can hope for. He has played good cricket. Pakistan has played great cricket. We have fallen short of what we want in the first two games.

This is where we find ourselves at the table. That is T20 cricket. Too early to be back in tournaments like this when you have games like these. We really want to finish well.

Can you talk about the importance of family to you over the past year?

I think a funny thing I heard, like some of my friends and acquaintances, still don’t get the life of a bubble, in regards to the family traveling during the tournament. They really think that bubble means we are staying in a hotel and playing games. They want to meet.

That’s why we don’t get to see other people at all. Actually we live amongst ourselves. We live inside rooms just trying to create some environment that we’re communicating with each other and trying to play some team building games here and there, and we’ve been doing this for the last eight months or ten months. are doing.

Without my family, I would have struggled so much. I am very indebted to them. Sometimes when the team loses, they put pictures of the family going out and all those people go after us and say what are you doing? You are on vacation with your family and everyone else. We are barely on vacation.

When we come back to the room, whether we’ve had a good day or a bad day, family is the only place we can count on. He has played more than a small role in what has happened in the last eight months.

Yes, we have got some good results. We haven’t got so many good results, but that’s what happens on the field. Off the field we are also human beings and we too have a family. We need that kind of space and cushion to go there and play the next day. I am very grateful to my wife and my children for doing this.

Yes, I’m sure most other players who have family here feel the same way.