Veteran India spinner Ravichandran Ashwin spills the beans on how he fell short of being a captain. The Tamil Nadu cricketer’s remarks come after his historic 100th Test and 500th Test wicket milestone in IND vs ENG series. Ashwin delves into the method he follows and explains how it necessarily isn’t the same as other players.
Ashwin explains why he wasn’t chosen as captain
On being asked at a recent Idea Exchange with The Indian Express if the ‘overthinker’ label has worked against him, Ashwin says: “Everybody has unique methods. A method that’s worked for me, will not work for (Ravindra) Jadeja. The cricket community likes to keep it really simple. Unless it’s completely broken, they wouldn’t try to mend it.“
“But I come from a school where even before it’s broken, I want to make sure I stitch it up and don’t get to a point where it’s broken. Why is it happening? That’s the question that people fail to recognise. I am addressing something before they believe I should address it. Because their journey is different and mine is different. They might get five opportunities but I will get only two. And I made peace with the fact that I will only get two.”
“It’s not like I change my action and tomorrow if I am leading a side, I would go to Jadeja and tell him that he should change his action. I’m not that dumb. In a way, people just assumed that that’s how it could be. They just thought he would not fit the bill as a leader and that’s quite an unfair assessment,” Ashwin adds.