WATCH: Ashwin's Cheeky Reply To Why He Stopped Watching Cricket

Veteran Ashwin bagged his 27th Test five-wicket haul as he dismissed Vernon Philander for a duck to help India finish on a commanding position.

India off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin took five wickets in the South African innings on Day 3 of the first Test in Visakhapatnam. South Africa fought back impressively as Dean Elgar and Quinton de Kock both scored their maiden Test centuries against India on the third day to go into Day 4 trailing by 117 runs. Veteran Ashwin bagged his 27th Test five-wicket haul as he dismissed Vernon Philander for a duck to help India finish on a commanding position. Following the day's play, Ashwin 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.

 

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🗣️ Reporter: Why did you stop watching cricket 📺📺 😁 Ashwin: I have two kids 👧🏻👧🏻 and got drawn towards books 📖 & archaeology 🧐🧐 #TeamIndia #INDvSA

A post shared by Team India (@indiancricketteam) on Oct 4, 2019 at 5:55am PDT

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." Proteas were 385/8 at stumps on Day 3 and India will be looking to wrap up the innings as early as possible on Saturday.