New inductee to the prestigious 500-wicket club Ravichandran Ashwin on Friday talked about his lowest point of life. Ashwin brought up his 500th wicket in the form of Zak Crawley on Day 2 of the IND vs ENG 3rd Test. The off-spinner, after the day’s play, reminisced about the time he was dropped from the Indian team away from home. Ashwin described the period as a ‘bottomless pit’ before the pandemic gave him perspective.
Ashwin became only the second Indian spinner and fifth spinner in the world to take 500 wickets in Tests. The off-spinner has been playing in Tests for more than a decade and has played in 98 Tests so far.
After the day’s play, Ashwin spoke to Anil Kumble about the dark phase he went through in his life in 2018. Ashwin was dropped from the team during India’s tour of Australia.
“Life has had its ups and downs and for me the lowest part for me was that 2018-2019 period. I was the ICC cricketer of the year and on top of the world. From there to actually go to a really bottomless pit was a very dark time in my life. Generally, I’m not someone who is fazed by the downs in life. When I’m down I don’t get beaten by it. I think about it, I want to come out of it, there’s always something to learn from bad days. But that was a really dark tunnel for me and I don’t know what hit me and how I got placed there. Injuries followed, I had a couple of injures as a bowler, the adductor strain and all that.
“And when I thought it was all almost done, was when the world got hit by a pandemic and that gave me a really good reflection of where I stood in life, what I wanted to play for, and to find new meaning of what this game stood for me. This game is all I love. I think I had lost some of that love before that and I managed to discover it,” Ashwin added.
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