With cricket fraternity continuing to express grief over the untimely death of Australia cricket legend Shane Warne, who passed away aged 52 on Friday in Thailand, former cricketers and old teammates have all shared their most memorable experience with the spin maestro. And on Tuesday, veteran Indian spinner Ravichandran Ashwin revealed an unheard Warne story which he heard from present India head coach Rahul Dravid.
Dravid and Warne may have been rivals during international duties, but did share the dressing room for three straight seasons while they were at Rajasthan Royals between 2008 and 2010 in Indian Premier League (IPL).
Sharing a unique story on Warne on his YouTube channel, Ashwin recalled the time when Dravid had asked Warne on how he had such strong shoulders. Although it is a necessity for spinners, as explained by Ashwin, but the story went about entirely different.
“I was talking to Rahul Dravid who was extremely sad. For a spinner, you shoulder and upper-half of the body has to be extremely strong because you have to use many rotations to spin the ball. Because for a spinner to master your craft, you should keep bowling in the nets. More so, if you are a leg-spinner. He had strong shoulders and that was his massive advantage,” he said.
{{/usCountry}}“I was talking to Rahul Dravid who was extremely sad. For a spinner, you shoulder and upper-half of the body has to be extremely strong because you have to use many rotations to spin the ball. Because for a spinner to master your craft, you should keep bowling in the nets. More so, if you are a leg-spinner. He had strong shoulders and that was his massive advantage,” he said.
{{/usCountry}}"It seems Rahul Bhai asked him, "How do you have such strong shoulders? What do you do?" It is such an unique story. There is a sport called 'Aussies Rules Football'. It is sport like Rugby. It seems he wanted to play the sport but was to built for it since people who play it are tall and well-built blokes.
So, they used to bully him and it seems he broke both his legs while playing. He couldn't walk and was on bedrest. For 3-4 weeks he walked or rather floated using his bare hands and those made his shoulders strong and there was no looking back. That's what he has told Rahul Bhai. We all face obstacles in life, but look how Warne converted it as his success formula," he added.
Warne ended his career with 708 wickets in Tests, the second most by a player, and picked over 1000 wickets across formats.