The premier Indian spinner, Ravichandran Ashwin has starred for India on many occasions with the red ball. Recently in an interview, the Indian off-spinner recalled an incident from a 2017 Test match against Australia in Bangalore. He was moved by the gesture of captain Virat Kohli after he told him about his plan to dismiss Australia opener, David Warner.
During a chat with Harsha Bhogle on Cricbuzz, Ashwin said, “Virat was playing PlayStation with Saha and I went to his room and said, ‘Virat, I think what’s happening is Nathan Lyon got wickets in the first innings and the wicket was damp so somehow there is this sense of people coming in and saying that Lyon got wickets and hence Ash should get wickets and we’ll roll them over.”
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He further added, “But I want to be in my own cocoon, where I can take this game forward the way I want. I think I want to go over the wicket to David Warner even if it sounds defensive. We need to put this game on pause mode, literally pause this game without Australia wresting the initiative. And I think both Warner and Renshaw have practiced a lot of balls for off-spinners coming from around the stumps. So I want to change this game.”
After explaining his idea to trouble the Australian opener, Ashwin saw Kohli going back to play his game before having faith on the off-spinner.
Explaining the same, Ashwin said, “He listened to my idea for a minute, started playing the game, and said, ‘Do what you want, I have complete belief in you.’ And the next day I started bowling over the stumps. How David Warner got out in the first innings in Bangalore, where he got bowled – I moved over the stumps and started hitting the rough and he got bowled.”
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Earlier, during an Instagram live session with Kohli, Ashwin asked the Indian skipper was asked whether he sees the game-changing a lot when it resumes.
Virat had explained, “It is so strange thinking even of practice sessions like instinctively you want to clap/hi-five, but you cannot do that, you will meet people after a long time, and you would have to fold hands and stay away. I know it sounds strange, it might be a permanent feature until there is some sort of cure or vaccine that comes out.”
