Ravichandran Ashwin, India’s off-spinner said he has the utmost respect for former left-handed batsman Yuvraj Singh and that he did not find any issues in the former 2011 World Cup winner’s viral tweet after the 3rd pink-ball Test was over within 2 days in Ahmedabad.
Ravichandran Ashwin, while speaking to the press on Saturday, said he did not find anything wrong or any hidden agenda in former batsman Yuvraj Singh’s tweet that took a jibe at the Motera pitch.
Yuvraj Singh Twitted That If Harbhajan Singh And Anil Kumble Had Pitches Like The One At Ahmedabad They Could Have 800 And 1000 Wickets Respectively
Yuvraj Singh’s tweet did not go down well with a section of fans as they took to Twitter to express their disappointment. Notably, the 2011 World Cup-winning former all-rounder had said if former spinners Harbhajan Singh and Anil Kumble had similar pitches like the one at Ahmedabad when they played for India, they could have ended up with as many as 800 and 1000 Test wickets respectively.
finished in 2 days Not sure if that’s good for test cricket !If @anilkumble1074 and @harbhajan_singh bowled on these kind of wickets they would be sitting on a thousand and 800 ??However congratulations to ?? @akshar2026 what a spell! congratulations @ashwinravi99 @ImIshant ?
— Yuvraj Singh (@YUVSTRONG12) February 25, 2021
Ravichandran Ashwin had shared a cryptic tweet a day after the Test, giving rise to speculations that it was in response to Yuvraj Singh’s tweet and was based on the criticism of the Ahmedabad pitch. However, the spinner rubbished such speculations and said he wanted to share his thoughts on the subject matter and there was nothing more to it.
Speaking to reporters days ahead of the 4th and final Test, Ravichandran Ashwin said: “The reason behind my tweets was not regarding anyone in particular. When I read Yuvraj Singh’s tweet, I did not get affected, I did not find that tweet trying to tell us something. It just felt like a plain tweet. For me, the state of mind I am in right now, I did not find it wrong.”
Finally. We can always have and stand by our opinions even if it’s against the majority as long as we know that it is our own and not the one thats been sold to us!
“The choice is always ours”
— Ashwin ?? (@ashwinravi99) February 26, 2021
“I know Yuvraj Singh for a long time, I have the utmost respect for him. Some people amongst us tend to buy what people sell, I do not know the reason why certain people try to sell certain things, but it is clear it’s just a perception of what happens.”
Ravichandran Ashwin and his new bowling partner in Tests, Axar Patel who debuted in the 2nd Chennai Test were on fire in the Pink-ball Test as they picked up 18 of the 20 English wickets.
Joe Root’s men managed just 112 in the first innings and failed to make the best use of an Indian collapse in the first innings as they were bundled out for 81 in their 2nd innings. India was set only a 49-run target and opener Rohit Sharma and Shubman Gill needed only 7.4 overs to wipe off the target.
Ravichandran Ashwin has 401 scalps and is only behind Anil Kumble (619), Kapil Dev (434), and Harbhajan Singh (417) among India’s leading wicket-takers.
Ravichandran Ashwin Defended Chennai Pitch By Scoring A Ton In The 2nd Innings
As the Ahmedabad Test match, venue of the 3rd Test, ended in 2 days, the pitch became a subject of intense scrutiny.
Even as India captain Virat Kohli and his English counterpart Joe Root refused to point fingers at the pitch for the early finish, several former cricketers, including Michael Vaughan, Alastair Cook, and Andrew Strauss, have criticised the wicket on offer.
Michael Vaughan went on to comment that India’s victory was ‘shallow’ and that the ICC would look ‘toothless’ if India is allowed to get away with such wickets. Alastair Cook and Andrew Strauss hit out at Virat Kohli after the India skipper blamed the batting quality from both sides for the 2-day finish to the Pink-ball Test.
Ravichandran Ashwin, responding to the criticism, said the talk about the surfaces is getting out of grasp and it needs to stop someday or other. Notably, he led the defence of the pitch that was on offer for the 2nd Test in Chennai by hitting a ton.
England was bundled out for 134 and 164 in their two innings at Chepauk as the pitch offered assistance to spinners from the first day itself. There were plenty of critics of the Chepauk pitch but the spinner responded to them with his bat by hitting a second-innings hundred which helped India seal a mammoth 317-run win.
Notably, Rohit Sharma had hit a match-winning 161 in the first innings as he looked better than the rest batsmen on a challenging pitch.