Ravichandran Ashwin continued to inspire the Indian team in red-ball cricket as he once again played a crucial role in a 2-0 series win over Bangladesh. The veteran spinner was named Player of the Series for claiming 11 wickets and a century in Chennai, which rescued India from a tricky stage. The 38-year-old spun his web in the second innings against Bangladesh in Kanpur when India was pushing hard to get the result after losing around two and a half days of play. He was the one who started exploiting the visitors' batting line-up with two wickets in the final hour of Day 4, and then on the final day, he dismissed Mominul Haque cheaply, who scored a century in the first innings.
Meanwhile, Ashwin equalled legendary Sri Lanka spinner Muttiah Muralitharan's tally of most Player of the Series in Test cricket - 11.
After the match, ex-BCCI chief selector Saba Karim, who was doing the commentary duties in the match, asked Ashwin whether he keeps a track of Player of the Match and Series awards.
To which Ashwin had a cheeky reply, "I think you are making it sound like I am some serial killer, who is planning all these things, which I am not. Honestly, it probably mattered at one stage of my career, but I am well past that and able to accept whatever comes to me as a result."
Ashwin reveals his greatest joy of playing the game
Ashwin further elaborated on his thought process and how he has been able to find the right process to move forward in his career and identify what he wants to accomplish.
“We constantly talk about focusing on the process and not so much on the result. We don't eventually find out what the exact process is. I am glad that I have been able to nail that down and associate my joy and outcomes of a particular day with what I am able to accomplish. For me, the greatest joy of playing the game is to be able to walk out to the net the day after or tomorrow and try something new. And that's the joy, not necessarily the wickets of player of the match/series awards, because you are gonna associate your happiness with that, then you are not going to be happy for a lot more days,” he added.
{{/usCountry}}“We constantly talk about focusing on the process and not so much on the result. We don't eventually find out what the exact process is. I am glad that I have been able to nail that down and associate my joy and outcomes of a particular day with what I am able to accomplish. For me, the greatest joy of playing the game is to be able to walk out to the net the day after or tomorrow and try something new. And that's the joy, not necessarily the wickets of player of the match/series awards, because you are gonna associate your happiness with that, then you are not going to be happy for a lot more days,” he added.
{{/usCountry}}India displayed a strong character when the two and a half days of play were washed out, and they decided to come up with an all-attack plan to push the game at a rapid pace. The bowlers did their job in the first innings by bundling out Bangladesh for 233 in first innings. But it was the batters who completely blew away the visitors with their approach. Yashasvi Jaiswal and Rohit Sharma went all guns blazing right from the first over, which set the tone of the match, and Bangladesh just failed to match the intensity in the last two days and lost by 7 wickets.