Ravichandran Ashwin happy trying to compete with himself

Ravichandran Ashwin became the second-fastest cricketer to claim 200 Test wickets but he said that he never thought of creating records as he is always “happy competing with himself”.

New Zealand skipper Kane Williamson was his 200th victim and in the process, he surpassed few legends in the likes of Dennis Lillee (38), Waqar Younis (38), Dale Steyn (39) and Harbhajan Singh (46). “I am happy trying to compete with myself. When I say that, I might sound cliched but I always say I constantly compete with myself. You go out and try and beat records.”

“Trying to catch up with records, always teach you lessons. That is something Test cricket taught me pretty early in my career. I lost a good 12 to 18 months and that’s good enough to teach me all the lessons,” Ashwin said at a press conference.

Ashwin has the habit of claiming the best of the opposition batsmen as his bunny, and the wicket of Kane is no different as he is considered to be the future of New Zealand cricket.

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“Definitely the 200th one is very special so far. Kane Williamson is not a bad scalp. There have been quite a few good wickets I had over a period of time. Kane Williamson getting out in this Test match in the first innings was a very good ball.”

“Sangakkara in Sri Lanka, these are some special memories I cherish in my career. I hope I create more and more in the future,” he added.

When asked if he could have done it more quickly as he had missed quite some good amount of cricket in the past. “It had to be that way. There are a lot of good memories I have created in the last 5-6 years in my career. To look back and feel sorry for a few things, is not the right way to go about my career. I am very happy,” he said.

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When asked about his prediction of future achievements, he refused to respond and said that his next target is to take a lead in the three-match series. “The next target is that we have to win this Test match. Everybody talks about 13 matches in the season. For me, it’s one match at a time. Try to take a 1-0 lead and take it forward.”

He is a bit disappointed that India should have taken 5 or 6 wickets on Day 4 as they were only able to clinch 4 wickets. “The game is not finished as yet. We are not jumping to any conclusions. The fact is we have to take six more wickets. It’s too early to call anything. We should have got them five or six down today, I am a bit disappointed with that,” he signed-off.