In what is Team India off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin’s 100th Test, his teammates gave him a guard of honour on taking the field on day 1 of the 5th Test against England. The video of the same went viral on social media as the off-spinner also acknowledged the crowd in the process.
Head coach Rahul Dravid presented the 37-year-old with his cap ahead of the 100th Test, in the presence of the latter’s wife Prithi Narayanan and their two daughters.
Having made his Test debut in 2011, Ashwin has emerged as one of India’s biggest match-winners, especially in India. The Tamil Nadu-born cricketer is also a handy batter down the order, scoring five centuries, three of which have come in India.
The ongoing series also saw Ashwin cross the landmark of 500 Test scalps, dismissing Zak Crawley for the same.
In a pre-match presser, the veteran spinner stated that the journey to 100 Tests remains special, but believes the 2012-13 series defeat to England was his making. With Ashwin struggling against England, he recalled how he was close to being dropped for the following series vs Australia.
“It is a pretty big occasion. More than the destination, the journey has been very special. It is a journey of ups and downs and a lot of learnings. One of the turning points of my life was the England series when Cook came here and made all those runs. It has been talked about a lot but to me that and what led to the next home series against Australia (changed a lot for me).”
“There was lot of noise about me being left out of the team, one of the selectors had a chat with me. At that time I was a bit nervy though I don’t know where it came from as I had done well previously.”
England, meanwhile, have won the toss and elected to bat first in Dharamsala.
(The article is published under a mutual content partnership arrangement between The Free Press Journal and Connected to India)