IND vs SA, 1st Test: 'Had Stopped Watching Cricket At One Point', Reveals Ashwin

After the day’s play, he admitted that there was a point when he stopped watching cricket altogether

Being named in the Playing XI for the first Test against South Africa was no less than a sigh of relief for ace off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin. After all, it was his first red-ball game for India in this calendar year. He didn’t get any chance in the Caribbean and the distance from limited-overs cricket pumped him up to excel on the Visakhapatnam track.

As a result, Ashwin bagged the 27^th 5-wicket haul in Test cricket on the third day of the ongoing fixture.  After the day’s play, he admitted that there was a point when he stopped watching cricket altogether.

“For starters, I have two kids who don't sleep all that well in the night,” he joked.

“Jokes apart, every time I watched (a match) on TV I felt like I want to play, that I am missing out. It's very natural, everybody goes through it but I generally try to do a few other things in life as well.

“My life has been all about cricket for the last 23-24 years, just played the game with that much passion. Just felt that my family and friends deserved a little more of my time so tried to spend some time away from the game and develop a few other interests. I found that whenever I stepped back onto the park it was a much happier time for me,” said Ashwin.

Ashwin seemed elated on his performance against the Proteas. He stated that playing for India after such a long break was the best thing that happened to him

“To stay away from not playing cricket itself is very tough for me. In order to substitute that, I played whatever games I got. I tried and made an opportunity for myself to go and play some county cricket. It was very important for me to tick those numbers off because that is essentially where I came from. Going back and playing there is probably the best thing that could have happened for me,” said Ashwin

South Africa have managed to come within 117 runs of India's first innings total of 502 thanks to centuries from Quinton de Kock and Dean Elgar. They were 385/8 at the close of play on Day 3 and India will be looking to wrap up the innings as early as possible on Saturday.