"I Need Closure": R Ashwin Breaks Silence On Tweet Post India's WTC Final Defeat

The absence of Ravichandran Ashwin from India's playing XI for the World Test Championship final against Australia remained one of the biggest talking points. Ashwin, who had worked hard to succeed in the tricky English conditions, didn't even find his name on the team sheet, with Ravindra Jadeja taking up the sole spinner's spot. As the match ended in a defeat for India, Ashwin took to social media and posted a lengthy tweet. The veteran cricketer has now opened up on the feeling that prompted him to do so.

"The moment, the final finished I put out a tweet because I realised one thing is that I need closure. The moment I get the closure I can move on. There is no time to hang around. I have understood life a lot better now," said Ashwin in an interview with Indian Express.

Congratulations Australia on winning this #WTCFinal and closing out this cycle of test cricket. It is disappointing to end up on the wrong side of things, nevertheless it was a great effort over the last 2 years or so to get here in the first place.

Amidst all the chaos and…

— Ashwin  (@ashwinravi99) June 11, 2023

When asked about the word 'closure', Ashwin said that he needed it as he wanted to move on and look at the tasks ahead rather than sulking and thinking about what could've happened if he was picked in the team.

"You need to be able to get up and move on. What I am trying to say is I have learned to live life a lot better than I used to. Sometimes I look back and think I have taken too much stress but maybe if I didn't, I might have not been playing cricket for so long. But looking at it, it's taken away my personality it's taken away my character. It's taken away, how I have lived life

Whenever I came back from a tour, I used to go to my academy to bowl because I know I have to keep up my skills. I have never taken a holiday. When I look back, the two years leading Kings XI Punjab and then the Covid years and my struggles, it's been the greatest learning of my life. When I went there as captain, I was this intense person because that was my journey. After I tried to get work done by a lot of other people, I realise my journey need not be necessarily somebody else's journey. It completely relaxed me and flattened me out," he said.

Ashwin said that he didn't want to give his situation any sympathy, and hence, decided to post that tweet and move on to focus on his next challenge, the Tamil Nadu Premier League.

"I have got no sympathy for my journey. It's very easy for me to go back and say, okay, this didn't happen for me or something happened for him. I don't give myself one second of sympathy. That's why I put that tweet because I wanted closure. I hated the fact that people are giving me sympathy, I just couldn't take it anymore.

"In this social media age, you don't play and sometimes you are bigger than if you had played the game, right? People are talking, 'if he had played we would have won'. I am not sure if I had played, we would have won. I would have given my best and I definitely think I gave myself the best opportunity to succeed there. I also think I earned my stripes. That's all I can do. But the moment it got done, I just wanted to move on and focus on the TNPL for Dindigul Dragons," said the versatile spinner.

Topics mentioned in this article

India Cricket Team Australia Cricket Team Ravichandran Ashwin Cricket