Ravichandra Ashwin said that Mahendra Singh Dhoni’s influence was huge on his career. In fact, Ashwin at the beginning of his IPL career was keen to get more and more attention of former Indian captain.
Ashwin recalls early IPL days
Indian off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin recently disclosed how influential Mahendra Singh Dhoni was for him in his career. In his early IPL days, Ashwin used to try to get attention from his team’s skipper Dhoni. Ashwin got his IPL contract from CSK back in 2008 which eventually shaped his career, according to him. “IPL and CSK is a stage that everyone wants. For me, it was more about recognition. MSD did not know who Ashwin is, (Matthew) Hayden and (Muttiah) Muralitharan did not know who Ashwin is. The first thing that came to my mind was that ‘I will show these people that Ashwin is here’.”
He then told Harsha Bhogle on ‘Cricbuzz in Conversation’, “I don’t know it was being foolish or arrogance but that was how I was made. Nobody was giving me a chance that Ashwin will play alongside Muralitharan or ahead of Muralitharan. I thought I will get there ahead of him one day.”
Dhoni’s influence in Ashwin’s career
Regarding Dhoni, Ashwin recalled, “I got the eye of Hayden, Jacob Oram, and Stephen Fleming while bowling to them at the nets. They were finding it difficult to face me in the first year (2008) but I had not caught the eye of MSD.” Ashwin continued, “I never had massive interactions with him. It was going to the nets and getting MSD…he was hitting Muralitharan out of the park and I thought, if I bowl better than him, I met get to play ahead of Murali. I got his attention when I got him during a Challenger trophy and celebrated like a crazy kid.”
Ashwin remembered how supportive Dhoni has always been. He shared one incident when in CSK’s match against Victoria Bushrangers in the now-defunct Champions League, he volunteered to bowl the Super Over. Dhoni gave him the ball and Ashwin failed to perform as expected. But Dhoni only told him,”You should have bowled the carrom ball.”
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