Ravichandran Ashwin has urged fans and the Indian cricket community as a whole to pause and reflect.
Reflect on how they deal with accusations of custom pitching or how instead of celebrating a talent like Rishabh Pant, they struggle to find deficiencies in their game.
Think again, is what Ashwin is saying to the “community” as a whole.
Like a man in full control of his craft, his carefully chosen words not only add fresh perspective, but also invoke a healthy academic debate.
“Look, we are the ones who are bothering with all this,” Ashwin said when asked if it is time for the England and Australian teams to acknowledge their lack of skills to counter quality bowling on lanes that offer curves.
“I mean that everyone has the right to have an opinion, whoever is giving their opinion has the full right to give their own opinion. I think we are the ones who are reading and seeing if it works or not. “
“… So we, as a cricket fraternity or as a country, dealing with these kinds of accusations, we need to improve a bit. We should be proud to say that we are playing cricket well, ”said the man, who is six less than 400 proving grounds away.
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Ashwin said that even the Indian team could have an opinion on the courses on offer, but neither the players nor the former fans of the country raise questions about the closure of courts in overseas conditions.
“I completely agree with the way they (the English experts) have their opinions, because we will also have our opinions reserved when we are touring abroad, but we don’t complain or complain, we just move on,” Ashwin said.
“I’ve never seen any of our greats, be it our coach Ravi Shastri or Sunil Gavaskar, they’ve been on a lot of tours, they talk about fields that have a lot of grass or all of that stuff.” Ashwin didn’t mention any England as great. but it was not hard to guess that he was referring to former England captain Michael Vaughan.
Respecting opinions but also learning to deflect them is Ashwin’s mantra.
“I think it’s more of a mindset, when people express such opinions we should respect them, but I think we should be able to magnanimously deviate them from what they are saying.”
In India, says Ashwin, people’s opinions are sometimes mixed with unwarranted advice, and that is precisely what happened during the five long years that he was not getting the expected results with the bat.
“The problem in India is that we have a lot of people with mixed opinions but that sometimes translates into advice, with no one even trying to think about how the player thinks and how help is needed.
“With me, I needed a confirmation and I got it from the hitting coach (Vikram Rathour).”
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During various interactions with the media, Ashwin has made it clear how well he values Rishabh Pant, a man who in his short time with the national team has managed to polarize opinions.
“Okay, let me say this and I never thought I would say this. About two months ago, there was a cricketer named Cameron Green, who made his debut for Australia. Even before he made his debut, everyone was saying that he was the ‘Next big thing’.
“I think he got 150 runs in the whole series (against India) and he didn’t get a wicket, but how much he was graded and built (promoted) made me reflect on how we as a community treat our cricketers. It gave me a huge perspective.
But Ashwin is still unable to understand why people start criticizing those who have reached a stage.
“They play for the country and, sometimes, you realize that we are looking for what happens to them. Rishabh Pant was always going to be a good cricketer and he was always going to improve.
“Only if we support them in such a way that we want them to improve, will they improve faster,” Ashwin said.
It is not Pant who needs to change, but everyone who judges him.
“… If we are going to find loopholes and failures, the cricketers are going to take much longer. I think it’s more of a mindset thing for us and we should accept what a good cricketer he is.
“We tend to see a lot of negatives. If we see many more positives, we will see many more champion cricketers. “
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She is a freelance blogger, writer, and speaker, and writes for various entertainment magazines.