Ravichandran Ashwin: No Reason To Not Appreciate Series Win In Sri Lanka

No Muralitharan, No Aravinda de Silva, No Mahela Jayawardene, No Sanath Jayasuriya, No Lasith Malinga. Only Angelo Mathews and a retiring Kumar Sangakkara. That was the basic man power of the Sri Lankan team that recently surrendered a 1-0 lead, to lose the series 1-2 to India. Such was the prowess of the previous Sri Lankan teams that India hadn't won a series in the emerald isle for 22 years. But does the fact that this Sri Lankan team was possibly the weakest India has ever faced take away from India's victory? (Critics Unfair on Ravichandran Ashwin)

The man of the series, R Ashwin doesn't seem to think so and his reason seems to be justifying just why. (R Ashwin Wins Sanath Jayasuriya's Praise)

"If you want to take away the credit from us then it's a fair enough assessment. I think when the credit is due, you need to give credit. When you are due for criticism then you need to take criticism. If you see both the line ups were very similar. Both teams have similar number of Test matches under their bank So I don't think why one should drive away the fact that it was a great effort to win coming back from 0-1. Yes, their are areas to improve & their are better teams, so we are looking forward to the challenges in Summer. I think there is no reason why you should not appreciate that we won a series in Sri Lanka after 23 years", said Ashwin to NDTV. (Kohli Impressed with Ashwin's Aggressive Bowling)

Ashwin's argument is reasonably accurate to say the least considering if Sri Lanka was inexperienced then India was even more inexperienced. Only 5 of India's touring party had played Test cricket in Sri Lanka previously. The total number of Test India's playing XI had played before the 3rd Test was 231, for Sri Lanka it was 363. (Ashwin Credits Good Catching for Record Haul of Wickets)

At the start of the series this was a team struggling to get its combinations right. Virat Kohli had backed Rohit Sharma in the number 3 position only to change that in the 2nd Test and push him to number 5. He had backed R Ashwin as the potential answer to India's need for an all rounder. In the 2nd Test, Stuart Binny had been flown in to replace an injured opener taking that all rounders role. Ashwin scored a paltry total of 36 runs in the first 5 innings of the series. In the final innings, it was a case of 'cometh the moment, cometh the man'. Ashwin top scored with 58 for India. That was of course in addition to his 21 wickets in the series. Ashwin credits his Captains backing for that performance.

"It's massive, what really ticked off for me with respect to Virat was that he was always saying that you have to be the best in the world. Suppose you are a top order batsman and he is a number 3 batsman, he wants to be the best number 3 batsman in the world or the best number 4 in the world. This is a very similar fashion in which I think as well, I want to be the best in what ever I do, I have re-iterated time and again that even if I am a bus conductor or a driver then I want to be the best in the World. So this particular fact that me and him match on these similar lines certainly helps and with him whenever he hands me the ball I can be rest assured that I will get what I want. That is something that's not just between me and him but I think he has done that with everybody in the team. Whoever he has backed he has backed them to the T and they have overcome barriers which is a great thing", said Ashwin.

The only real criticism for the team at the end of a magnificent series victory was Ishant's seemingly needless aggression that saw him getting banned for 1 Test. The question is was it needless or over the top?

"I think everybody needs to be who they are and everybody is aggressive, everybody playing cricket wants to be aggressive. Some people are aggressive from within but some are more expressive that's the only difference but I think whatever happens in life, there needs to be a lesson learnt out of it and Ishant was aggressive and he won the test match for us and there is no taking away things from him but he might have cost himself a game now but that doesn't mean that we go overboard and have a go at him. I think he will learn from his experiences and he will comeback being aggressive and being controlled aggressive and win a lot more games for us", said India's carom ball man.

R Ashwin has only recently opened a high performance academy in Chennai and while he tries to become the best in the world, of course with controlled aggression, one can expect India's number 1 spinner to contribute to preparing the next generation of India's cricketers.