Very fortunate to have interacted a lot with R Ashwin, claims Murugan Ashwin
Tamil Nadu spinner Murugan Ashwin, who went to the same Engineering college with Ravichandran Ashwin, has stated that the latter pushes him to do well all the time. Murugan has also added that the star Indian offie never settles for mediocrity and gives him a comfort factor every time.
Starting with a minimum base price of Rs 10 lakh, Murugan Ashwin saw his price reaching Rs 4.5 crore to emerge as the biggest gainer in the 2016 IPL auction after a sensational performance in the 2015-16 Syed Mushtaq Ali T20. It was no coincidence that he was picked by Rising Pune Supergiants, the franchise for which Ravichandran Ashwin represented in the 2016 season, considering both of them graduated from the same college - Sri Sivasubramaniya Nadar College of Engineering in Chennai.
Murugan’s price might have fallen ever since, but till last year, he remained a valuable entity in the Indian Premier League as the third-choice spinner for Kings XI Punjab after R Ashwin and Mujeeb Ur Rahman. Murugan still cherishes the support he received from his college senior and IPL captain and stated that the legendary Indian spinner pushes him to do well each time.
“I have learnt a lot from him. He’s a legend of the game. I’ve been fortunate to interact a lot with him. He is someone who keeps pushing you. He never likes to settle down [for mediocrity] and keeps pushing to get the best out of you. In that sense, it is very good to have someone close to you, someone who really cares for you and wants you to do well, and is also honest with his feedback. It’s very good to have someone like him around,” M Ashwin said during the chat show Homerun with AV with sports commentator Arun Venugopal on his YouTube channel Gethist Creative.
The duo share a great camaraderie between themselves that their friendship doesn’t stay within the confines of cricket. Murugan, the son of Tamil writer Era Murugan who penned the dialogue for a famous Tamil movie Billa 2, revealed that the Indian international even helps him understand different responsibilities of parenting.
“As I said because we have interacted with each other a lot, and because he has two daughters, I can probably ask him how to manage two daughters (laughs) [M Ashwin has two daughters as well. So does R Ashwin]. They go to preschool. I have interacted a lot with his wife as well. So, that’s the kind of life advice [related to parenting] I can get from him,” the spinner added.
