If cricketers were F.R.I.E.N.D.S. characters

Ravichandran Ashwin as Ross Geller

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Paleontologist Dr Ross Geller shares a love-hate relationship with the audience all around. His obsession with dinosaurs and scientific reasoning that parallels Phoebe Buffay’s witty observations provide some of the most hilarious scenes throughout the series. Such is his obsession with the extinct creature, that Joey Tribbiani is forced to write Ross' occupation as "dinosaur" in a form that he is filling up! On the surface, Ross appears a morbid nerd who is an unassuming professional.

With a B Tech degree in engineering, Ravichandran Ashwin remains one of the most educated Indians in the Indian dressing room. Like Ross, he too is a thorough professional that gives in to over-analysis in the field in which he excels in. Appearing stoic and serious as the world around continues to indulge in outbreaks of mania; both Ross and Ashwin seem solemn and even boring, preferring to shy away from the eccentricities of the others around.

But that is where the façade in their personalities give away. As Ross draws a moustache on Rachel or mistakenly whitens his teeth more than necessary, he unveils a side of his that is profuse with carelessness and subtle streaks of wit. Ashwin too unloads his lighter self once in a while, prank-calling his shoe provider for a pair of shoes that were anything but normal.

“The right shoe should be size 10 and the left should be 12. The left shoe should not have a sole,” exclaimed Ashwin in glee leaving the poor provider in deep anxiety.

Ashwin, mirroring Ross, is hard working and in his quest for greater achievements refuses to give up without a fight. The off-spinner remained in the shadows of the more illustrious Harbhajan Singh for many years and once the opportunity came his way, he established himself as the world’s best bowler of the current time. By compromising his own interests for those around him, Ashwin, like Ross, remains selfless and big-hearted which can be aptly seen in the former’s ability to adapt to the team’s demands of batting up the order consistently.

And of course, by being fully aware of the surroundings around them, they have managed to attain the state of “unagi”, something that Ross was overtly fanatical about!