"What have you done to earn an engineering degree", R Ashwin was asked in college
What’s the story?
R Ashwin reminisced about moments that changed the course of his personality and approach to the game in a media interaction at Chennai today for the announcement of his association with ITW Blitz.
The prolific off-spinner said that while an obvious change did take place in his approach to the game during the Adelaide test in 2015, the seeds of transformation were sown way back when he was in college.
Speaking with remarkable candour, Ashwin recalled an incident when he was pursuing his engineering studies in Chennai. Having realised that his records weren't signed and his eligibility for the final exams in doubt, a young Ashwin had walked up to his HoD and sought permission to take up the exams. In response, the HoD had apparently questioned his integrity as a student.
"An engineer is someone who goes and works and it is deserved by so many other people on the streets and you seem to have actually played cricket, come on your free time to college and become an engineer.
If you deserve to be an engineer, you need to put in the hard yards. What have you done to be eligible for this engineering degree," the HoD had said.
A dejected Ashwin had then found solace in the words of his mother. "If you don’t improve, you won't get very far in life. But if you don’t change, you don’t give yourself a chance to improve," she had said.
Years later, when he was dropped from the side for the Adelaide Test on India's tour of Australia in 2015, this incident had formed the basis for the stand that Ashwin had taken.
In case you didn’t know…
The Test match in question happened at Adelaide in December 2014. R Ashwin seemed the obvious choice in the bowling line up but to the surprise of many and the spinner himself, he was replaced by Karn Sharma.
Recalling the match, the off-spinner said, "the fact that I played the previous Test match in England, I just assumed that I would play the next test match. It was a kick on my backside to tell me that I was not good enough."
Karn Sharma picked up three wickets in the entire match while off-spinner Nathan Lyon ran riot and picked up 12 wickets to pocket the man-of-the-match award.
Ashwin confessed that this incident jolted him and compelled him to put in the hard yards to improve as a cricketer.
He said that when he had nothing to do but watch Nathan Lyon ripping the Indian batting line-up apart, he coined a mission statement for himself - "change and improvement are directly proportional, one cannot exist or happen without the other."
It was then that he apparently said to himself that "if I have to change and if I’ve decided to change, improvement is just around the corner. But if I look to improve, change is inevitable."
The heart of the matter
It is well know that during the course of the Adelaide Test match, with nothing to do, Ashwin spent hours bowling in the nets. Slowing but surely, his form returned and over the course of the next few years, his abilities with the ball and bat have visibly sky rocketed.
Sportskeeda’s take
The 2016 ICC Cricketer of the year finished the year with 97 wickets and 659 runs at an average of 41.18 across all formats. His mastery over the art of off-spin bowling and skill with the bat makes him India's premier all-rounder at the moment and one of the best in the world. His candid revelation today shows the human side of the man that we are now accustomed to seeing win matches for India with ease.
His confessions about hard-work and change as perhaps the only two elements that could make or break a cricketer offers lessons for not just those playing the game, but for others seeking inspiration in various walks of life.
R Ashwin is slowly but surely, emerging as a role model cricketer.