"Virat is fired up" - When Ravichandran Ashwin recalled interesting incident about Kohli from South Africa tour

Former Indian all-rounder Ravichandran Ashwin once recalled an interesting incident involving teammate Virat Kohli from India's tour of South Africa in 2018. The incident also involved South Africa's Dean Elgar.

During an interview in 2018, Ashwin recalled an incident from the tour where he was facing Kagiso Rabada, who was bowling a good spell. The all-rounder recalled how he took Rabada on, which fired Kohli up. Dean Elgar then walked up to Ravichandran Ashwin when Kohli got in between, which led to Elgar simply going back.

"This time in South African tour. Every time I went into bat Rabada was bowling. He was bowling a good spell. It felt like he was just charging in a little bit more and I felt like he was bowling rockets. He was going through that purple patch. It woke me up and I was just waiting okay this guy is bowling quick what do I do. I went bang bang I go three boundaries together. Now Virat is fired up because I have taken Rabada on and hit him for three fours. He's like keep going Ash keep going and all that," he said.

"Dean Elgar just walked to say something I think he wanted to say something to me and Virat just went in between and said you get on you're not even hitting a single ball you're getting all your runs off the edge. Dean Elgar just shit his mouth and just went," Ashwin added.

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Ravichandran Ashwin's International career

Veteran all-rounder Ravichandran Ashwin announced his retirement from international cricket after the third Test of the 2024-25 Border Gavaskar Trophy (BGT).

He played 106 Tests, 116 ODIs, and 65 T20Is for India in his international career. Ashwin retired as one of the best all-rounder cricketers from the country. He bagged 537 wickets in Tests, 156 wickets in ODIs, and 72 wickets in T20Is.

While he was predominantly known for his bowling, Ravichandran Ashwin was a more than handy batter as well. In Tests, the right-hander scored 3503 runs with six hundreds and 14 half-centuries. He also scored 707 runs in ODIs.

Ashwin is still playing competitive cricket and is a part of the Chennai Super Kings (CSK) in the IPL 2025 season, which is currently suspended for a week.