Ashwin was eager as ever

Visakhapatnam, Oct. 4: Ravichandran Ashwin, playing his first Test match since December last year, says he badly missed playing for India in the last 10 months, so much so that the wily off-spinner stopped watching the game.

The 33-year-old, who has been playing only one format for India since July 2017, last played the Adelaide Test from December 6 to 10, the first of the four on the tour of Australia. To his disappointment, Ashwin did not feature in the playing eleven in the following Test series against the West Indies in AugustSeptember when India only played one spinner in Ravindra Jadeja.

“To stay away from cricket itself was very tough for me. In order to substitute, I played whatever games I got. I tried and made opportunity for myself to go and play some county cricket (for Nottinghamshire). I tried and played the TNPL as much as I could, played some league cricket in Chennai,” he said.

“It was very important to tick those numbers off because that is essentially where I came from. Going back and playing there is probably the best thing that could have happened,” said Ashwin, who when asked about time away from national duty.

After claiming his 27th five-wicket haul in Tests on Friday, Ashwin showed that he remained India’s go to spinner in home conditions. Asked how spent his time away from the spotlight, Ashwin said: “I felt like every time I watched the game on TV I felt like wanted to play the game. I was missing out I felt, it is very natural. I just wanted to play. Everybody goes through it. But that’s not the end.

“My life has revolved around cricket for the last 25 years. I thought my life, my family everybody deserved a bit more of my time so I tried to spend time away from the game. I discovered other interests (reading archaeology books was one of them). I did not fret too much about the game,” he said. —