Ravichandran Ashwin Recollects His Journey In The 2011 World Cup

Ravichandran Ashwin made his international debut in 2010; however, it was not until his match-winning performances in the 2011 World Cup that he began putting people on notice. While at present, he remains only in India’s plans for Test cricket, Ravichandran Ashwin shot into the limelight through limited-overs cricket. During an interview with Sportskeeda, the off-spinner remembred the road to the 2011 World Cup.

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Ravichandran Ashwin played his first match of the World Cup against the West Indies, taking two wickets for 41 runs as India won the game handsomely. India’s defeat to South Africa gave them a wake-up call that resulted in Ashwin’s inclusion. The off-spinner also featured in the quarter-final against Australia, taking the wickets of Shane Watson and Ricky Ponting.

Ravichandran Ashwin conceded that he woke up every morning during that tournament, knowing he was not going to get the nod in the eleven. But the off-spinner was confident of his abilities and knew he performed well in the limited opportunities he got. The veteran also mentioned that every morning, he opened his years, headlines were crying for Ashwin to get a game.

“I remember that World Cup very, very clearly. Every morning I woke up, I wasn’t playing in the XI. I hadn’t played a lot of one-day cricket also leading into the World Cup. I just played a few games but I had performed quite very well, and every day I woke up, the paper would read Ashwin should get a game, Ashwin should be playing so and so forth,” the Tamil Nadu spin-bowler stated.

“For me, it was like, I would like to be playing, I want to be playing” : Ravichandran Ashwin

The 33-year old further said that with Harbhajan Singh being the frontline spinner in the side, he was finding it hard to break into the playing eleven.

“We had Bhajju pa (Harbhajan Singh) who was playing in the XI as well. So, I was finding it very difficult to balance. For me, it was like, I would like to be playing, I want to be playing,” Ashwin mentioned.

However, the confidence in him placed by the people gave him the incentive to perform the Ashwin did during India’s crucial games. Currently, Ravichandran Ashwin so far has 365 wickets from 71 Tests while his final limited-overs international came back in 2017 as India steered themselves to include more leg-spinners instead.

“Every cricketer wants to play, but here I am, being told that I must play. So, delivery of the fact saying, Ashwin will play and he will help the team win, sort of told me, if I have to play I need to win the World Cup for the country because everybody had said that I should play and if I play, India will win the World Cup,” he added.

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