I don't have time for critics anymore, reveals Ravi Ashwin

Ashwin is only the fifth bowler in Indian cricket to claim over 300 Test wickets and his average is way better than everyone else on that list. However, the off-spinner has always had his share of critics, who have questioned him every chance they got. Having been a Test team regular for a better part of seven years now, Ashwin has finally had enough and revealed that he is not interested in people’s opinion anymore as he just wants to enjoy the game. 

"If you are successful, people will say it's right. If you are not successful, people will have an opinion,” Ashwin told HT. 

"For the better part of my 150 wickets, experts kept on saying that I was trying variations....when I knew I wasn't doing it. These are opinion created by people for which I have to give answer to. I don't have time for that anymore as I want to enjoy my game."

In recent times, Ashwin role in the Indian team has been restricted to just the Test team as the Indian team management has decided to go ahead with the wrist spinning duo of Kuldeep Yadav and Yuzvendra Chahal in the limited overs formats. He is currently not in India’s ODI scheme for the World Cup and was clear in saying that theories in Indian cricket are based on “perceptions”, and he not interested in discussing the same issue over again and again. 

"Like they say, world spins and everything will spin around. It's only matter of time as more often than not Indian cricket is built mostly on perceptions," Ashwin said.

Apart from his bowling exploits, Ashwin has made name for himself as a very handy batsman in the lower order. He has an impressive average of almost 30 in Test cricket and is surprised that people still to expect him to put up some numbers.

"I am always battling benchmarks that I have created for myself. Unfortunately, people don't take that into account and I don't expect them to do it. That's never been an Indian way and I am not worried about it. I am still taking 5-6 wickets per Test and way more matured than what I was 25-27 months back."

"During a Test match in Sydney (2014), experts said a spinner should go for wickets and when I went for wickets, they said I should be bowling tight and give break to fast bowlers. Now, this is the wall I hit all the time. So the battle is within me as I can't keep looking outside."

He also had a word of advice of Kuldeep Yadav, who has been able to deceive batsmen with his stock ball and the wrong un. Ashwin asked the leggie to start working on variations so that he can keep the batsmen guessing. 

"Kuldeep has leg break, googly and ability to deceive batsmen. But challenge starts as batsmen will start reading him better. That's when he will need to adapt but we have good support system in place."

"I don't bowl the carrom ball from the top. I bowl from underneath now so that it doesn't give much trajectory to batsmen and it skids through. I have also developed a few variations with normal off breaks," he said.