The premier Indian off-spinner, R Ashwin played down talks around Yuvraj Singh’s social media post which came after he picked up his 400th Test wicket in the Pink-ball Test which ended in just a couple of days on a raging turner at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad.

R Ashwin, speaking to the press on Saturday, said he did not find anything wrong with Yuvraj Singh’s tweet in which the latter took a jibe at the Motera pitch. Yuvraj faced some heat from a section of fans for his tweet as they took to Twitter to express their disappointment. Notably, he had said if Harbhajan Singh and Anil Kumble had similar pitches when they played for India, they could have ended up with 800 and 1000 Test wickets respectively.

finished in 2 days Not sure if that’s good for test cricket !If @anilkumble1074 and @harbhajan_singh bowled on these kind of wickets they would be sitting on a thousand and 800 ?🤔However congratulations to 🇮🇳 @akshar2026 what a spell! congratulations @ashwinravi99 @ImIshant 💯

— Yuvraj Singh (@YUVSTRONG12) February 25, 2021

R Ashwin had shared a cryptic tweet a day after the Test, giving rise to speculations that it was in response to Yuvraj’s tweet and the criticism of the Ahmedabad pitch. However, Ashwin rubbished such speculation and said he wanted to share his thoughts on the said subject and there was nothing more to it.

Speaking to reporters days ahead of the 4th and final Test, Ashwin said: “The reason behind my tweets was not regarding anyone in particular. When I read Yuvi paa’s tweet, I did not get affected, I did not find that tweet trying to tell us something. It just felt like a plain tweet. For me, the state of mind I am in right now, I did not find it wrong.”

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He further added, “I know Yuvi paa for a long time, I have the utmost respect for him. Some people amongst us tend to buy what people sell, I do not know the reason why certain people try to sell certain things, but it is clear it’s just a perception of what happens.”

Finally. We can always have and stand by our opinions even if it’s against the majority as long as we know that it is our own and not the one thats been sold to us!

“The choice is always ours”

— Ashwin 🇮🇳 (@ashwinravi99) February 26, 2021

R Ashwin and his new bowling partner in Tests, Axar Patel were difficult to handle for the visitors as they picked up 18 of the 20 English wickets and they were bundled out 112 in the first innings and suffered a huge collapse in the second innings, as well as India, bowled them out for 81. 

Responding to the criticism on the pitch conditions, R Ashwin said the talk about the surfaces is getting out of hand and it needs to stop.

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Notably, it was Ashwin who was defending the pitch that was on offer for the 2nd Test in Chennai where England was bundled out for 134 and 164 in their two innings at Chepauk when the pitch offered assistance to the spinners from Day 1. Notably, Rohit Sharma had hit a match-winning 161 in the first innings as he looked a cut above the rest on a challenging pitch.