Two hundred wickets is a landmark to be proud of and R. Ashwin achieved the feat in his 37th Test, only one more than the legendary Clarrie Grimmett.
Ashwin reached the milestone when he snared Kane Williamson for the second time in the match.
“Maybe Clarrie Grimmett was a nicer man than I am! I think it just had to be that way I guess. It’s fine, honestly,” Ashwin said, indicating that he was at peace with being second to the wily leg-spinner from Australia.
“There are a lot of positives to look at and lots of good memories that I’ve created over the last five-six years of international cricket, and to look back and feel sore about it is not the right way to go about my career. So I’m just happy where I am right now.”
On the thought process behind bowling round the wicket, Ashwin said, “Just avoid target-practice, maybe. I mean, we need to make our plans and try to see what technical difficulties the batsmen face.
“To start off with, the way the New Zealand left-hand batsmen play is very different to the other left-handers. They don’t plonk their foot across, they plonk it right down the wicket, try to play inside-out a lot. It will work on this wicket because it doesn’t have enough bounce, turn and carry. Just trying to change a bit of angles, and our targets were better today.”
‘Why not turning tracks?’Asked to comment on Harbhajan Singh’s views that India ought to avoid playing on rank-turners, Ashwin, while being wary about not sounding confrontational, said: “To be very honest, what kind of wickets that we are playing is not something that [Anil] Kumble or [Virat] Kohli can go and roll wickets or water it. What we get is what we play on. (sic)
“Obviously, we are looking to play good cricket and it is not going to take the sheen off.
“It is very unfortunate that people don’t realise it. But it is very important that we enjoy the brand of cricket that we play and a win is a win. Savour it. If a Test match in England gets over in two days, nobody talks about it. Why in India though?”
Special onesReflecting on his 200-wicket journey, Ashwin said, “Definitely the 200th has to be the special one so far. Kane Williamson is not a bad 200th scalp!
“There are quite a few good wickets that I’ve had over a period of time. A.B. de Villiers in Nagpur was very well set up. Kane Williamson in this Test match in the first innings I thought was a very, very good ball. Sangakkara in Sri Lanka… these are some special memories that I’ll always cherish in my cricketing career.
“I hope I can create more and more in the future.”
