COVID-19 isolation forces us to turn up and enjoy cricket next time, admits Ravichandran Ashwin
IPL
Off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin reckons the forced isolation due to the outbreak of the coronavirus forces cricketers to turn up and simply enjoy the game as there is not much to look forward to. The pandemic has claimed more than 18,000 lives around the world, with close to 600 infected in India.
COVID-19 has spread to almost 425,000 people — at least 75% of them testing positive in the last three weeks alone. With India on the brink of stage three of a pandemic — community outbreak — PM Narendra Modi announced, in his nationwide address yesterday, that the country would go into complete lockdown for at least the next 21 days.Â
Amidst all this, however, Ashwin has been taking lessons that forced circumstances has been teaching him about life and cricket, in general.Â
"I am not missing the game as such except the rigours and tensions of playing the sport, the pressure of it, just trying to compete. Every day you are looking forward to something. If you go to practise, you are looking forward to, say, the IPL, the TNPL, or club cricket. Tomorrow if I have to turn up at the nets, I don't know what to look forward to. There is a freshness to that, to be honest. You don't have to look forward to anything. Just turn up and enjoy the game," Ashwin told PTI.
The off-spinner also talked about not worrying about the neet to bowl or hit the ball. He also revealed that the next time he is going to play cricket, he is going to turn up and enjoy the game.Â
"Need to bowl the ball or hit the ball and not worry about what is in front of you. Obviously I am not going to go out to bat or bowl in the near future, but if I do in isolation, I think it will be great,” Ashwin added.
