Adelaide, Jan 27: Off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin says the Indian cricket team is “disappointed” but not “embarrassed” with their disastrous showings in Australia even as they headed towards a second successive series whitewash on foreign shores.
“Embarrassment is not the right word. It would be nice if you could rephrase it. Nobody has fooled or cheated anyone. We are extremely disappointed and that's probably is the word I can use,” said Ashwin after India ended the fourth day of the final Test in Adelaide at 166 for six here today.
“It's only a sport. At the end of the day, we have competed hard, it's not that we have chucked it away. Yes we came down short on occasions but there were moments which we could have seized and it would have looked different. We have not seized initiative and there hasn't been enough in the back to do it,” he added.
So poor was India's batting that towards the close Australia had nine fielders posted close to the bat with off-spinner Nathan Lyon operating.
“We can put up a challenge to a spinner even if nine fielders are around. When things are going right you could do anything and pull the rabbit out of the hat. Yes, we have succumbed as a whole and we don't have an answer to that. Probably some other time, we could have replied to that.”
Ashwin was also unmindful of the backlash the team could face from fans back home.
“We never have had that at back of our minds. If you are going to think what's going to happen, it doesn't work like that in life. We just tried our best and it hasn't gone our way.”
Just for their win in the present series, Ashwin wasn't prepared to anoint Australia as world's best yet.
“We have seen in the last one year, teams are increasingly getting stronger at home. Under sweltering heat and lack of bounce, we might fancy ourselves. A team has to do really well and perform all over the place.”
