Ravichandran Ashwin
Seasoned off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin has dismissed rumours of his recent cryptic tweets being directed towards ex-India all-rounder Yuvraj Singh.
After India's comprehensive win in the third Test against England, Yuvraj was unhappy over the match getting wrapped up in just two days. He had tweeted that if Harbhajan Singh and Anil Kumble had similar pitches when they played for India, they could have ended up with 800 and 1000 Test wickets respectively.
Ashwin, a day after India's emphatic show in the pink-ball Test, had shared a cryptic tweet saying, "You can’t think on your own’ and here we will teach you how to think and also help you think the way we want you to think. After having played the game at this level for a decade, I can safely say that ‘As long as we are going to buy it, they will shove it down our throat."
“Finally. We can always have and stand by our opinions even if it’s against the majority as long as we know that it is our own and not the one that's been sold to us! The choice is always ours"
Many fans took it as a reply to Yuvraj's tweet but Ashwin on Saturday clarified that he wanted to share his thoughts and there was nothing more to it.
"The reason behind my tweets was not regarding anyone in particular. When I read Yuvi paa's tweet, I did not get affected, I did not find that tweet trying to tell us something. It just felt like a plain tweet. For me, the state of mind I am in right now, I did not find it wrong.
"I know Yuvi paa for a long time, I have the utmost respect for him. Some people amongst us tend to buy what people sell, I do not know the reason why certain people try to sell certain things, but it is clear it's just a perception of what happens," said Ashwin while speaking in a virtual press conference ahead of the fourth Test.
Ashwin and Axar Patel bowled in tandem and picked 18 of the 20 English wickets to seal an emphatic victory for India. England folded for 81 in their second innings, registering their lowest Test total against India. While Axar registered a five-wicket haul, Ashwin added four more to his first-day spoils of three scalps to cross the 400-wicket mark in the longest format
