Ravichandran Ashwin shares an interesting incident during his engineering degree

Indian spin ace Ravichandran Ashwin recalled the moments in his life that helped him change his personality and approach towards game during a recent media interaction at Chennai. He was present there for announcing his association with ITW. Ashwin believed that there was an obvious change in his approach towards the fame during the Adelaide Test in 2015 but went on to add that the process of transformation has been since college days.

Recalling an incident when he was pursuing his engineering degree in Chennai Ashwin said he realised that there was a moment in his college life that he realised that he was at sea and records in cricket won’t make his eligible for the final exams. So he went up to his HOD and sought permission to appear in the exam. In response his HOD was pretty disappointed with approach questioned his morality as a student.

“An engineer is someone who goes and works and it is deserved by so many other people on the streets and you seem to have actually played cricket, come on your free time to college and become an engineer.

If you deserve to be an engineer, you need to put in the hard yards. What have you done to be eligible for this engineering degree,” the HoD had said. Ashwin though was supported endlessly by his mother during his difficult times. If you don’t improve, you won’t get very far in life. But if you don’t change, you don’t give yourself a chance to improve,” she had said. About many years later Ashwin was unexpectedly dropped from the Indian squad for the Adelaide Test against Australia despite being their premier spinner in place of Karn Sharma. The No.1 offie in the world at the moment was very disappointed as he had taken his place in the team for granted. That was the day he realised there is a long way to go.

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Recalling that match Ashwin said, “the fact that I played the previous Test match in England, I just assumed that I would play the next test match. It was a kick on my backside to tell me that I was not good enough.” Ashwin had to witness Nathan Lyon ripping apart the star-studded Indian batting line-up with his 10 wicket haul in the match. Ashwin was jolted at the incident but craved to come back stronger and put in the hard yard to become a better cricketer. He was pretty determined and made a mantra for himself “change and improvement are directly proportional, one cannot exist or happen without the other.” He had apparently also told himself that if I have to change and if I’ve decided to change, improvement is just around the corner. But if I look to improve, change is inevitable.”

Despite facing all these difficulties in life Ashwin has strived for the extra yard and is currently dominating World Cricket especially in the longest format with guile and exceptional variations. Ashwin also bagged the ICC Cricketer of the year and ICC Test Cricketer of the Year 2016 for his outstanding performances through the course of the previous year.