Diary of Ravichandran Ashwin after New Zealand ODI series

Ravichandran Ashwin

Wellington, New Zealand

January 31, 2014

Dear Diary,

Life is strange and funny. When I entered international cricket, people took notice of my carrom ball and drew comparisons with Ajantha Mendis. Today, as we lost 0-4, people have started comparing me with VVS Laxman (Hehe! I thought I only resembled his fielding, but people are comparing our batting styles too).

Come to think of it, it is not bad. Not at all. I was the fastest Indian to 100 Test wickets in November, but I feel bowling is not something I was meant for. I feel like an IIT engineer who becomes a CA. He realizes his dream after the age of wisdom, 26. It dawned on me at 26, too. That six I hit against Mitchell McClenaghan in the first ODI at Napier was the turning point. I never felt I could do it. I felt like Hanuman ji, who realized his powers when the need arrived. My days with the Tamil Nadu cricket team where I opened came back to me like yesterday.

In the fourth ODI, when I was having my breakfast, MS Dhoni told me that Stuart Binny would get a game. And in the previous match, I had hit a fifty ( Ravindra Jadeja scored 10 runs more and got Man- of-the-Match that day, Hmph!!!). I feared getting demoted to number 9, behind SRJ and Binny. My cornflakes bowl fell on the floor. I looked at the skies and asked God if my dream was getting crushed in its infancy? Was he this cruel to me? But, God had something different in store for me.

When the 3rd Indian wicket fell, I was in my boxers. Dhoni walked to me, took a deep breath, and asked me to get padded. I was stoned. He told me that I will be the next one in when the 4th batsman falls. My jaw dropped. The clock slowed down, and I could hear a faded voice of cheering crowds at the back of my head. I thanked the Almighty. I had been promoted above both SRJ and Binny, even in the ODI that followed. But the cup of ecstasy spilled over so much that I couldn’t play my natural game in those matches.

Every ball I faced on the field in those two matches, that statement of MS “get padded, you are next” reverberated in my mind. There is a reason God made me take only 1 wicket in this NZ series and made me score more runs than Raina, Dhawan, Rahane and Ryder.

Whoa! As I write this, my hands are overjoyed to even hold this pen steadily. The batting order is not playing well at all, and if I bat the way I am batting, I could walk out as an opener for India. This engineer-turned-CA is loving his balance sheets and ledgers. Two years back, I didn’t work on my fielding so that I could focus on my bowling. If things work well, I won’t work much on my bowling to focus on only batting.

I feel Jadeja is also confused about his career. Whenever I want to discuss my career future, I find someone who can relate to me in Jadeja. He understands what I feel. Every word of it. He says that the biggest question he faced once was defining himself as batting all-rounder or bowling all-rounder. That is not the case with me. Today as we head for the New Zealand Test series, I know I am a batsman. Yes, I have a new purpose in life.

It is never too late to live a dream.

Ravi Ashwin

Disclaimer: This is a fake diary and shouldn’t be taken seriously.