In an interview, Ravichandran Ashwin, who just announced his retirement from the Indian cricket team, recounted how his fast thinking made former India coach Rahul Dravid ecstatic during the match against Pakistan.
Ashwin was referring to that famous leave against Pakistan in the T20 World Cup in 2022 when India needed just two runs off the final ball. India had lost the wicket of on the previous ball with at the other end. And then, Mohammad Nawaz bowled a ball to newcomer Ashwin which was down the leg side. Instead of throwing his bat at it and trying to force runs, Ashwin calmly watched the ball go to the wicketkeeper for a wide. On the next ball, he took India to victory.
“I was unaware of what I had done. I haven’t witnessed Rahul Dravid that elated since I returned to the dressing room; the last time I witnessed him do so was following our recent victory in the T20 World Cup. I had never seen him so happy as now. “That’s why we had you in the squad,” he added to me. So that’s how you handle this! To be honest, I didn’t really get the significance of that moment. I simply let it go after seeing the ball. Then it struck Rizwan and returned.
I believe Virat was on the verge of celebrating. He just shouted, “Who the hell leaves a ball like that?” with his hand while speaking with Michael Atherton and Naaser Hussain on the Sky Cricket Podcast.
Following that, he attributed the split-second choice to his experience playing gully cricket.
It’s been my problem ever since. I have been fighting that battle for years with the rest of the cricketing community. It appears that the cricket community does not acknowledge the existence of this gully cricketer who has appeared, mingled with us, and maintained his natural status as a gully player throughout his life. Gully cricket isn’t so popular in the Western world, such as England, Australia, and New Zealand, so I find it difficult to accept and stomach.
Gully crickets play a significant role in my life. I continued to play gully cricket with my buddies until quite late in my career, most likely in the middle. I don’t believe I’ve ever experienced such joy anywhere else in the world as a result of it. Since they have offside runs in every one of our games, leaving a ball on the leg side is essential to getting a free hit. Since you can’t score runs on legside, it’s almost like bowling underarm into your legs. Therefore, it comes naturally to me to simply flick open my hips and leave the ball when you have it down the legside.
The majority of people would claim that I worked through the night to get out of that ball, but Ashwin clarified that this is untrue.
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