Veteran India off-spinner R Ashwin has admitted that he felt ‘crushed’ after the former India head coach Ravi Shastri termed Kuldeep Yadav India’s no.1 overseas spinner after his five-fer in Sydney in 2019. However, Kuldeep picked up a five-wicket haul in the Sydney Test. While the match ended in a draw, India registered a historic Test series win Down Under.
After the win, the then head coach Shastri claimed that “there is a time for everyone (referring to Ashwin’s fitness and injury issues). But now Kuldeep is our frontline number one overseas spinner”. While talking about that in a recent interview with The Cricket Monthly, Ashwin said that he didn’t like it.
He said: “I hold Ravi bhai in high esteem. We all do. And I understand we all can say things and then retract them. In that moment, though, I felt crushed. Absolutely crushed. We all talk about how important it is to enjoy your team-mates’ success. And I was happy for Kuldeep. I have not been able to get a five-for but he has a five-for in Australia. I know how big it is. Even when I have bowled well [at other times], I haven’t ended up with a five-for.”
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He also added that it was hard for him to deal with the situation of “being thrown under the bus”. And he further shared his views about Shastri’s comparison between him and Kuldeep Yadav.
He continued: “…If I have to come and partake in his (Kuldeep’s) happiness, and the success of the team, I must feel like I belong there. If I feel like I am being thrown under the bus, how am I supposed to get up and come for a party to enjoy the team’s or team-mate’s success? I went back to my room and then I spoke to my wife. And my children were there. So we were able to, you know, shrug it off, and I still made it to the party, because, end of the day, we had won a massive series.”
However, R Ashwin played an important role in the Adelaide win during that tour, scalping six wickets in the Test, where he had played with a grade three abdomen tear. However, Ashwin surprisingly returned in the white-ball squad during the T20 World Cup in the UAE and Oman and did well too. He was also adjudged the Player of the Series during the Tests against New Zealand at home as well.
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He again said: “Between 2018 and 2020, I contemplated giving up the sport at various points. I thought, “I have put in a lot of effort, but it is not coming through.” The harder I tried, the farther it felt. I contemplated retirement for a lot of reasons. I felt like people were not sensitive enough to my injuries. I felt like a lot of people were backed, why not me? I have done no less. I have won a lot of games for the team, and I am not feeling backed.”
“I don’t usually look for help, that somebody needs to back me, that somebody needs to cushion me or give me empathy. I felt I was not being able to be excellent and felt I needed a shoulder to lean on. It was not happening. I thought maybe I should try to find something else and be excellent at that,” R Ashwin concluded.
