Ravichandran Ashwin reveals unheard Shane Warne story that he got to know from Rahul Dravid

03/08/2022

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The cricket fraternity still continues to express grief over the untimely death of legendary leg-spinner Shane Warne, who passed away aged 52 on Friday, March 4 in Thailand. Recently, Ravichandran Ashwin has revealed an unheard Shane Warne story which he heard from present Rahul Dravid.

Former cricketers, as well as the current bunch of players, have been sharing their most memorable experience with Australia’s greatest leg-spinner Shane Warne, who died aged 52 in his hotel room on Friday, March 4 in Thailand. India’s veteran off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin revealed an unheard story of Warne, which he heard from India’s current head coach Rahul Dravid.

Although Dravid and Warne have represented different countries, they did share the same dressing room for three straight Indian Premier League (IPL) seasons during their stay at Rajasthan Royals, between 2008 and 2010.

Speaking on his YouTube channel, Ashwin recalled the time when Dravid had asked Warne on how he had such strong shoulders. Although spinners do have strong shoulders. However, as explained by Ashwin, the story was completely unique.

“I was talking to Rahul Dravid who was extremely sad. For a spinner, your shoulder and upper-half of the body has to be extremely strong because you have to use many rotations to spin the ball. Because for a spinner to master your craft, you should keep bowling in the nets. More so, if you are a leg-spinner. He had strong shoulders and that was his massive advantage,” Ashwin said on his Youtube channel.

"It seems Rahul Bhai asked him, ‘How do you have such strong shoulders? What do you do?’ It is such a unique story. There is a sport called 'Aussies Rules Football'. It is a sport like Rugby. It seems he wanted to play the sport but was to build for it since people who play it are tall and well-built blokes.

“So, they used to bully him and it seems he broke both his legs while playing. He couldn't walk and was on bedrest. For 3-4 weeks he walked or rather floated using his bare hands and those made his shoulders strong and there was no looking back. That's what he has told Rahul Bhai. We all face obstacles in life, but look how Warne converted it as his success formula," he concluded.

Warne finished his international career with 708 wickets in Tests, the second most across the world by a player, and picked more than 1000 wickets across formats.