Rahul Dravid has immense depth of knowledge, amazing vision: Ashwin
The Hindu
He said he is looking forward to trying to contribute alongside Rahul and being of use to the team in any way possible.
Before being recalled into India’s T20 squad for the ICC T20 World Cup, the last time Ravichandran Ashwin played in India’s blues was way back in July 2017. No wonder then, that the veteran offspinner was rolling his arm over in the pre-match warm-ups as soon as the team walked out on the park since its tournament-opener versus Pakistan.
Besides, Ashwin was playing for India for the first time since the World Test Championship, having been benched right through the Test series in England.
Thanks to a calf strain to Varun Chakravarthy, Ashwin finally got an opportunity versus Afghanistan on Friday. After marking his comeback with a flawless spell of 2/14 off his four overs, Ashwin, the articulate speaker, on Thursday opened up on his prolonged wait in a press conference. Edited excerpts:
He has worn India’s blues, albeit in an Under-19 World Cup, with K.L. Rahul, Mayank Agarwal, Harshal Patel and Jaydev Unadkat as his teammates. He has proudly adorned the Lion’s Crest — the famed Mumbai cricket logo — in all three formats. He has played with Yuvraj Singh, against Virat Kohli and Rahul Dravid and has the likes of Rahul and Joe Root in his illustrious list of dismissals. He is also a software developer for an IT giant, based in California. Virtually every middle-class Indian over the last three decades at some stage dreams of being either a cricketer or an IT professional. Saurabh Netravalkar has been combining two dreams, even after relocating to USA to pursue academics at the prestigious Cornell University in 2015.
Unlike most of the Olympic-bound athletes, who opt to train abroad before the big event, boxer Amit Panghal prefers training in home conditions prior to Paris 2024. A former World championships silver medallist and a World No. 1, Panghal won the 51kg quota place in the only chance he got. He wants to follow his own plans to script success in Paris.
The other men’s semifinal Friday is Norway’s Casper Ruud, twice the runner-up in Paris — to Rafael Nadal in 2022 and to Novak Djokovic in 2023 — against Germany’s Alexander Zverev, a finalist at the 2020 U.S. Open, an Olympic gold medalist and into the final four at Roland Garros for the fourth consecutive year.