There is no denying the fact that excluding Ravichandran Ashwin from the Indian squad which played the WTC final 2023 against Australia was a big mistake and even the legendary former Indian cricketer Sachin Tendulkar talked about it after India lost the WTC final.
Talking about the snub during an interview, when Ashwin was asked whether he tried to talk to any teammates or tried to look for support from any of his friends in the team, the senior spinner stated that it is a deep topic as nowadays everyone is a colleague. He added that there was a time when the teammates used to be friends but now there are colleagues because of the competition among all of them and nobody has the time to talk to another person. In conclusion, Ashwin said that in simple words, it is an isolated journey.
This statement attracted many reactions from the cricket fraternity; Ravi Shastri gave a sharp reaction as he says that there will always be colleagues in the dressing room. However, the young Indian cricketer Prithvi Shaw supported the statement, saying that he also felt the same.
Recently, R Ashwin gave an interview in which he said something which surprised everyone. Ashwin said that his comments regarding friendship-colleagues were misunderstood by people as they got the impression that he is saying that the environment in the dressing room has turned toxic due to competition.
According to Ashwin, what he said and what people understood are completely different. He added that he meant to say that friendship was possible in earlier times because tours used to be long but nowadays, cricketers are playing constantly, for different teams and in different formats because of which the scope of friendship is very less.
Ashwin says that a player needs to keep the competitive spirit alive in order to compete and for explaining his statement, he gave the example of the IPL.
Ashwin says that when they play in the IPL for 3-4 months, at that time the teammates of Indian team become competitors while playing for different teams. He adds that he is not saying friendship is impossible but it is tough and there is nothing negative in this regard.
What do you think of the u-turn taken by Ravichandran Ashwin? Share your views in this regard.
