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
🎥: Breakfast with Champions and Gaurav Kapur
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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.
04:22Absolutely.
04:23Absolutely.
04:24Absolutely.
04:25Absolutely.
04:26Absolutely.
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04:35Absolutely.
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04:47Absolutely.
04:48Absolutely.