'Kept hearing I am finished' - Ravi Ashwin opens up on the time when people wrote him off

Ravichandran Ashwin is an asset for the Indian side in Test match cricket. The 35-year-old bowling legend is the 3rd highest wicket-taker for India in Tests and has scalped a staggering 429 wickets in the whites.

And now, Ashwin has stated that there was a time when many people had written him off. The off-spinner also revealed that whenever he used to go and play club games in Chennai, he would hear people tell that his international career is over. Ashwin also admitted that it was not easy for him to laugh off these comments every time they were made.

“As a sportsman, you are engulfed by criticism. You want to overcome that. A lot of people wrote me off. I used to walk into club games in Chennai and I used to put in the hard yards. And I would hear murmurs about people saying ‘this guy is coming and playing because his international career is done, he is finished’. I used to keep hearing these things. Sometimes it’s easy to laugh off, sometimes it hurts,” said Ashwin in a chat with Boria Majumdar on the show Backstage with Boria.

It used to be a hard battle: Ravichandran Ashwin

Ravichandran Ashwin also added that during the Covid-19 pandemic, he would wake up and tell himself that he has something left in him, and what people speak about him does not matter. The off-spinner added that it was a tough battle for him, and concluded by stating that he is now more positive in his outlook.

“I used to wake up during the pandemic every single day telling myself – it doesn’t matter what people think, but this particular cricketer, this particular character has, has something left. And, this is not how I want to leave. It used to be a hard battle. I used to train twice in a day. I reviewed over 3-10 dietitians. I am definitely eating better, training better, and more positive inside my head,” concluded Ravichandran Ashwin.