"Don't really know how to react to compliments" - Ravichandran Ashwin on praise from Rohit Sharma after 1st IND vs SL 2022 Test
After Ravichandran Ashwin surpassed Kapil Dev's tally of 434 scalps in the Mohali Test between India and Sri Lanka, Rohit Sharma hailed the off-spinner as an all-time great. The feat made the 35-year-old India's second-most successful bowler in Tests.
Speaking at the post-match press conference, India's new Test skipper had said:
"He is an all-time great in my eyes. He is playing for so many years and performed for the country. So many match-winning performances, so for me, he is an all-time great. People might have different point of views but from where I see, he is an all-time great for me."
In a recent chat with the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), Ashwin reacted to his skipper's praise and admitted he is not great at handling compliments.
"I don’t know what to tell Rohit," he said. "I am very bad at receiving compliments. I don’t really know how to react or how to place myself."
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"Sometimes I can get emotional but I can’t really coin those words when I get emotional," he went on to add.
The all-rounder said that he did not react until the next day when the team was having breakfast together.
"Yesterday Rohit went out into the press conference and lavished praise on me and I really didn’t know how to react until this morning at the breakfast hall when I said it was very sweet," he said.
"Saw a lot of human element in how he led" - Ravichandran Ashwin on Rohit Sharma
The first Test against Sri Lanka was Rohit Sharma's first as captain in the longest format. Ashwin was highly impressed with the way the 34-year-old led the side.
Speaking about his leadership, Ravichandran Ashwin said:
"We all know how tactically strong Rohit is, but I saw a lot of human element in the way he led the side in this game. He is looking out for everyone in the team. How everyone would feel, how everyone’s confidence is very important for the engine room to function."
Ashwin cited the example of how Rohit used India's third spinner Jayant Yadav.
"The way he wanted to look after Jayant Yadav, the third spinner..he was underbowled, but he wanted to look after him, he wanted to rotate the bowlers," he said. "How he kept the fast bowlers in the game from one end all throughout the match. And even beyond all these tactics, how simple he was able to keep the game."
Ashwin also spoke about how the skipper wanted to wait for Ravindra Jadeja to reach his double-century before declaring. The all-rounder instead insisted that the team let Sri Lanka come out to bat.
"When he wanted to declare, he wanted Jadeja to get a double-hundred," he said. "Eventually it was Jaddu who said it was not that important and that it was going to take some time and you should go for a declaration. All those things, I’m sure Rohit is very, very experienced. He’s not someone new to the leadership ground and I thought he did a phenomenal job."
Jadeja was batting on 175 when Rohit Sharma declared the innings as India eventually beat the visitors by an innings and 222 runs.