A look back at an incident when Ravichandran Ashwin taught Brad Haddin and David Warner a lesson

Indian off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin announced himself into international scene through his stellar performances in the lucrative Indian Premier League (IPL). The bowler now finds himself among the top spinners of the world with his carrom ball and the arm ball being his speciality.

Besides his capabilities as a bowler, Ravi Ashwin has grabbed the headlines several times with his witty statements. The bowler is known to have one of the most intelligent minds in the Indian dressing room and is a remarkable speaker.

We would like to take you back to an incident which took place when India toured Australia in 2014-15 in order to fight for the Border-Gavaskar trophy. During the 4^th Test at Sydney, Ashwin engaged himself in a battle of words with Australian keeper Brad Haddin which was later joined by David Warner.

Ashwin narrated the story during an episode of What The Duck, Season 2, hosted by famous comedian Vikram Sathaye. “On fourth day morning, I was batting. And I was like defending Nathan Lyon not taking a lot of chances, just rotating singles. People put in, I didn’t go over the top and all that. So Haddin was standing behind and Warner was at leg gully. And Haddin kept on going for an hour and a half.” said Ashwin.

Ashwin went on to reveal how Haddin tried to get the better of the off-spinner from behind the wicket. “He said, he will remain positive, it’s all talk and no action. Just talks, he is a useless guy and all this was just going for an hour and a half, I just stayed listening, listening, just batting the way I was batting, it was getting to them. So, he sad, ‘Hey, hey. You don’t have a mouth? You don’t talk? What’s with it? You talk only in press conferences.”

Ashwin’s reply:

Ashwin finally lost his cool and decided to teach Haddin a lesson. He said “If only you could’ve spent the time that you talked or watching press conferences [as in the nets], I think you could’ve made a far better Test cricketer that what you are, Brad,”

Haddin felt short of words and was left searching for an answer. Ashwin narrates “And he’s like, “What? Watch that? I said, look at your average. You walk in an you look like a sitting duck. Everybody has made runs in this series and you’re the one who looks like a tail-ender. Mitchell Johnson got runs. You’ve not made runs.”

Warner tried to make a comeback for his friend but suffered the same treatment from Ashwin. He continues “Immediately, David Warner [said], they have a thing of hunting in packs. They believe in that, I don’t know what that means. I think somebody just brainwashed them saying, you hunt in packs. So as soon as I gave it to Haddin, Warner from behind came. ‘Hey, watch that, mate? You watch what you’re saying. I said, ‘Listen, I think you need to watch out for what you’re saying. Then he immediately said, that you’re a bully at home. I said I could be a bully at home but you still lambed to me even in Australia. You’re getting out here as well. So it’s better that you don’t talk because in the second innings again you have a chance of getting out to me. And so as it would have it, he got out in the second innings.”

Ashwin picked the wicket of Warner three consecutive times in that series in the last three innings. Ashwin had dismissed Warner 9 times in Tests and that’s the highest for Ashwin against any batsman and vice versa.