Ravichandran Ashwin is considered to be one of the finest all-rounders of world cricket. The off-spinner has tormented batters from all across the world, especially in the longest format of the game. However, there was a time when Ashwin’s career was under threat because of an injury and at one point in time he even told his wife Prithi that the home series against Australia might become his last series.
"I'm very proud of what I've done in my life not just because of wickets or runs. But how consistently I have been to able to reinvent myself. One thing that really plagues cricketers or anybody as they grow old is insecurity. For me, it's how cricketers get locked when they get older and when they get experienced; you want to hold on to something so tight, that you eventually end up breaking your own neck," Ashwin told The Indian Express.
"When I came back from Bangladesh, I told my wife that the Australia series could become my last series. I used to have some knee issues. I told I am going to change my action because it really got a lot of momentum and with that when I was landing, my knee was buckling a little bit. I hadn't done enough workload because of the T20 World Cup but I was not just not happy with the way the ball was coming, it was just scrambling a little bit here.
"By the second Test (in Bangladesh) it started to pain. It was really swelling up. So just thinking okay, how do I do this? Because I bowled really well for three-four years, right? To change my action, it's got to be the most stupid and ridiculous thing to do. So I came back and said, listen, there's a lot of load on the knee, it's time to change and I'm going to go back to my action that used to bowl in 2013-14," he revealed.
The Tamil Nadu-based player is the quickest Indian bowler to reach 50, 100, 150, 200, 250, 300, 350,400, and 450 Test wickets. The veteran spinner even took a call to make some changes to his action in order to get rid of the knee pain.
"So I went to Bangalore, I had to take an injection at that point in time, so, I changed my action. I started bowling and my knee pain went away. I practised for three-four days in Nagpur and I went into the Test match without having played a game with that action at all. On the first day of the Test, I didn't even feel like a bowler for three to four overs but I was able to get on with it because of the awareness I have.”
Recently, India played Australia in the World Test Championship final where they did not include Ashwin in the playing XI, and as a result, they lost the game.