Veteran spinner R Ashwin has been an integral part of the Indian cricket team over the years, especially when it comes to the Test format. He played an instrumental role in India’s dominance in the longest format of the game.
Ashwin was also India’s go-to bowler in the World Test Championship 2021-2023 cycle, having picked 61 wickets. The last Test series that India played in the WTC 2021-2023 cycle was the Border-Gavaskar Trophy, where R Ashwin won the joint Man of the Series title alongside Ravindra Jadeja.
Hence, it came out as a huge shock for the fans when R Ashwin was dropped from playing XI during the crucial WTC Final 2023. His exclusion from the playing XI started a full-fledged debate in the cricketing world.
R Ashwin Wanted To Retire Because Of Knee Issues
Meanwhile, in his latest interview, R Ashwin made a shocking revelation stating that he was thinking of retirement post-Border-Gavaskar Trophy. He said:
“I’m very proud of what I’ve done in my life not just because of wickets or runs. But how consistently I have been to able to reinvent myself. One thing that really plagues cricketers or anybody as they grow old is insecurity. For me, it’s how cricketers get locked when they get older and when they get experienced; you want to hold on to something so tight, that you eventually end up breaking your own neck,”
Further, R Ashwin opened up about the knee issues that forced him to change his bowling action.
For the unversed, after the Test series against Bangladesh earlier this year, R Ashwin felt that he had severe issues in his knee and he could feel his knee popping after bowling every ball. Hence, he had told his wife that he felt that the Australia series would be his last. He revealed: He revealed:
“When I came back from Bangladesh, I told my wife that the Australia series could become my last series. I used to have some knee issues. I told I am going to change my action because it really got a lot of momentum and with that when I was landing, my knee was buckling a little bit. I hadn’t done enough workload because of the T20 World Cup but I was not just not happy with the way the ball was coming, it was just scrambling a little bit here.
“By the second Test (in Bangladesh) it started to pain. It was really swelling up. So just thinking okay, how do I do this? Because I bowled really well for three-four years, right? To change my action, it’s got to be the most stupid and ridiculous thing to do. So I came back and said, listen, there’s a lot of load on the knee, it’s time to change and I’m going to go back to my action that used to bowl in 2013-14,”
He Changed His Bowling Action Because Of Knee Issues
Fortunately, his decision to change his bowling action worked in his favor as he finished the four-match Test series against Australia with 25 scalps, helping the Indian cricket team clinch the Border-Gavaskar Trophy 2-1. He said:
“So I went to Bangalore, I had to take an injection at that point in time, so, I changed my action. I started bowling and my knee pain went away. I practised for three-four days in Nagpur and I went into the Test match without having played a game with that action at all. On the first day of the Test, I didn’t even feel like a bowler for three to four overs but I was able to get on with it because of the awareness I have.”
R Ashwin added:
“And I am proud of the Player of the Series award. I think that is probably one of the best series I have had and the best bowling performance for me in a series in the last four-five years. I have done a lot of good stuff in the last five years, but still, it felt like that. Looking back, I feel so proud of having done that at 36. If I can change my action and put my career at stake, I don’t think there can be a greater challenge in life. A lot of people tend to get insecure. They don’t want to do something else and fail. It is very easy for me to play another four tests with the same action, maybe pick up 15, or 16 wickets, and not feel good about myself,”
