R Ashwin: Why bowling is a blue-collar pursuit

Brut India

Is he one of India's greatest-ever all-rounders?  Back in 2019, Ravichandran Ashwin spoke about why being a bowler is not easy in India. ⭐️  : Breakfast with Champions and Gaurav Kapur

Transcript

00:00I constantly feel that nobody wants to be a bowler because it's actually labour class

00:04whereas batting is like first class or business class.

00:07You want to inspire people picking up the ball.

00:09You didn't have a Javagal Srinath who was one of the greatest ever becoming a superstar

00:12in India.

00:13You didn't have an Anil Kumble until he actually picked up 10 wickets and went on to get 600

00:17wickets to get an Anil Kumble circle in Bangalore.

00:19There's nothing wrong in being aggressive.

00:21Virat's aggressive.

00:22MSD is aggressive.

00:30Would aggressive be a good adjective for you?

00:58Aggressive on field?

00:59Aggressive on field.

01:00Cricketer, if I walked on the road, I would want to win every day.

01:01Just going there and, yeah, I should win today.

01:03My team should win today.

01:04It was about competing right from that age.

01:06Competitive is a better word than aggressive.

01:07No, I mean, there's nothing wrong in being aggressive.

01:10Virat's aggressive.

01:11MSD is aggressive.

01:12Yeah.

01:13He is.

01:14He's very aggressive.

01:15Of course, he is.

01:16And it's just about showing it in a different way.

01:17It's emoting.

01:18It's emoting what you are.

01:19I don't believe I'm an extremely talented or extremely very, very good cricketer or

01:24somebody who's extremely skillful.

01:25Like, for example, if you take Virat or Rohit, they are like born natural talents with the

01:32game.

01:33I don't belong to that segment, actually.

01:34I belong to the other segment where my cricket is relied on method.

01:39So there are two ways to it.

01:40But I think Virat applies a lot of method to his talent as well.

01:44MS is the one that actually first taught me about it saying, look, at the top of the mark

01:48at the run up, you should have five, six options in your hand such that you're not searching

01:53for answers.

01:56And that's a very deep, deep line that he gave me.

01:58But it's true because there have been times in the game where I'm actually under the pump.

02:03I know I need a certain answer, but I don't know how to get it.

02:08So I just used to write it down sometimes so that because I had to change formats between

02:11test ODI and T20.

02:13So getting back into the T20 mode, I needed to sometimes refer to it what I did and what

02:17I don't sometimes.

02:18Because if you go into the game, you could be found wanting and it'll take you two, three

02:21games to come back.

02:22So do you do that?

02:24Sometimes, yes.

02:25Is it like deer diary?

02:26It's not deer diary.

02:27I mean, I have a log written away somewhere in my house about why I do certain things

02:32and what are the cues for it.

02:34It's basically like what you do in school.

02:36It's aim, method, process and result.

02:38I played 2010 IPL and CSK won the title, became the player of the tournament in Champs League

02:43in 2010.

02:442011 again, I was a player of the tournament and people are always very supportive of me

02:48playing white ball cricket for India.

02:52But when my selection came for red ball, a lot of people had their own reservations

02:56and opinions about whether this was the right thing to do.

02:59He is a white ball cricketer who's been thrown into the mix.

03:02But a lot of people had forgotten the fact that I had actually picked up 141st class

03:05wickets in 30-odd games.

03:07I remember Anil Kumble actually telling me this, that half of Sachin's career went in

03:12trying to make people right, prove people right.

03:14And most of my career went in trying to prove people wrong.

03:17So it was very similar.

03:20And once I embarked on this journey and started becoming the bowler that I was, I realized

03:24that I actually had to prove it to people that it's good to be a bowler.

03:29Because I constantly feel that nobody wants to be a bowler because it's actually labour

03:33class.

03:34Whereas batting is like first class or business class.

03:36So it's more…

03:37Blue collar, white collar.

03:39Exactly.

03:40And you want to inspire people picking up the ball.

03:42You didn't have a Javagal Srinath who was one of the greatest ever becoming a superstar

03:45in India.

03:46Yeah, correct.

03:47You didn't have an Anil Kumble until he actually picked up 10 wickets and went on to get the

03:50600 wickets to get an Anil Kumble circle in Bangalore.

03:52So unless and until you actually treat people the way they need to be treated, you're not

03:57going to inspire a generation to take up that art.

03:59And the first thing actually Virat said when he started taking over the leadership of our

04:04test team was that he said, bowlers are going to be the ones that are going to run the team.

04:09Because I think bowlers are the ones that can win games.

04:12And it's you guys that will make sure whether we are stars or superstars.

04:20Yes.

04:21Absolutely.

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