Ravichandran Ashwin reveals the real turning point of his career which changed everything for him

Veteran India off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin in the pre-match press conference for the 5th Test against England, spoke about the turning point of his career that made him a better bowler.

Ashwin stated that England’s tour of India back in 2012, remains the biggest setback as well as the main turning point for him. The Indians, then under MS Dhoni’s captaincy had lost the 4-match Test series 2-1.

That particular series remains the last Test series that India lost on their home soil. Since then, no foreign team has been able to breach a red-ball series over here, not even Australia, South Africa, or New Zealand.

When England had arrived for the ongoing Anthony De Mello Trophy series, they were expected to overthrow India’s dominance. But the likes of Yashasvi Jaiswal, Rohit Sharma, and Ravichandran Ashwin among others kept them away from doing so.

Ashwin says he improved 5% after England defeated India by 2-1 in 2012

During that press conference, Ravi Ashwin touched upon a lot of subjects and the turnaround moment of his career was also one of them. After revealing the 2012 series as the turning point, Ashwin remembers going back and reflecting on the mistakes he had made.

In that series, Ravichandran Ashwin had finished as the 4th best bowler with 14 wickets from the 236.5 overs he bowled. He was quite inexperienced at that time in the international scene as the England series was just the 4th Test series of his Test career which began in 2011.

As India lost the series by 2-1, the most disappointing thing about Ashwin was his economy rate which was at 3.11. He leaked as many as 737 runs, the highest by any bowler in the series who made it to the top 5 best bowlers’ list. Ashwin describes that series as the one that changed everything for the good.

The off-spinner instead of succumbing further down, staged a terrific comeback, worked on his weakness and today has 507 Test wickets. He explained at the conference that he knew exactly which areas he should be working on and that he improved 5% after it.

“That series vs England at home, where Cook and Pietersen scored runs. Can well be the turning point for me. There were talks of me getting dropped. It was a wonderful lesson for me to improve say 5%. I knew what I had to correct. Since then, it was addressing downs.” – Ravichandran Ashwin said in the pre-match conference at Dharamshala.

Ravichandran Ashwin excited about his 100th Test match

The 5th Test between India and England at Dharamshala will see Ravichandran Ashwin become the 14th Indian to play 100 Test matches. He will join the likes of Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid, Anil Kumble, Kapil Dev, VVS Laxman, Sunil Gavaskar, Dilip Vengsarkar, Sourav Ganguly, Virat Kohli, Ishant Sharma, Harbhajan Singh, Cheteshwar Pujara and Virender Sehwag.

The off-spinner will also become the 6th spinner in the world to appear in 100 red-ball matches and the 4th Indian bowler to do so. In his 100th Test match, Ashwin will have the chance to become the leading wicket-taker of the series as he is currently the joint second-highest wicket-taker with 17 wickets along with Jasprit Bumrah and Ravindra Jadeja. England’s Tom Hartley leads the chart with 20 points and the 5th Test begins from March 7.