The veteran Indian spinner, Ravichandran Ashwin had to warm the bench for an entire season of the Indian Premier League (IPL) before he eventually made his debut in the 2009 edition of the tournament. He was picked by the Chennai Super Kings (CSK) under the leadership of MS Dhoni and since then the franchise has lifted the coveted trophy three times. Currently one of India’s star Test bowlers with 365 wickets in 71 matches, Ashwin was pretty much a rookie back then.

Recalling his initial days, Ashwin said that he understood the importance of impressing Dhoni, who wasn’t aware of the spinner. The Tamil Nadu spinner played his first game against the Mumbai Indians (MI) in Cape Town but didn’t get a chance to bowl in that match, but he hasn’t looked back ever since. 

During a chat with Circbuzz, Ashwin said, “MS Dhoni did not know who Ashwin was. I had to catch the eye of MS Dhoni. So, if I had caught the eyes of MS Dhoni, I had the best chance.”

ALSO READ: Saqlain Mushtaq Feels Babar Azam Has An Edge Over Virat Kohli

Ashwin is currently standing at the 7th position in the list of all-time leading wicket-takers in the IPL. In 139 matches, he has 125 wickets at an economy of 6.79. He played for CSK for seven seasons and was a part of the winning team in 2010 and 2011. He was also the leading wicket-taker and the Player of the Tournament for them in the 2010 Champions League T20.

Currently, Ashwin has been bought by Delhi Capitals (DC) which has been led by Shreyas Iyer as the off-spinner led the Kings XI Punjab (KXIP) in 2018 and 2019. When asked about the reason to move to DC, Ashwin went in to acknowledge that he couldn’t perform to expectations in KXIP.

ALSO READ: Kuldeep Yadav Clarifies He Never Had Dependency On MS Dhoni

The Tamil Nadu spinner said, “There are other factors, the owners did feel I haven’t delivered which is true because I could not take the team through to the playoffs in both the seasons. You can give excuses why we could not do that, but I am someone who takes it under my chin and admits that ‘yes I couldn’t deliver.’ The trade was more initiated rather my doing.”