[IPL]-Ravichandran Ashwin: I Had Issues With Coach Stephen Fleming
It’s very competitive within the IPL, a player’s fate will be decided in a few matches. As IPL franchises are loaded with players who can replace him, a player can be eliminated if he fails to perform in consecutive matches.
Two poor games in the IPL were all it takes for the top Indian off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin to realize that bowling in the T20s wasn’t as easy as he thought it was, the reality hitting him like a “hard slap.”
Speaking to cricketer-turned-commentator Sanjay Manjrekar for ESPN Cricinfo, Ashwin shed light on the period since consecutive disappointment in 2010, when he was dropped from play XI. He felt that coach Stephen Fleming didn’t back him enough which led to issues with the head coach.
“People thought that I think highly of myself, but the flattening of the curve happened when I played in the IPL. It was like a slap in the face like ‘listen boss, you are not even here. ”
”I thought bowling in a T20 game was much easier than bowling in a first-class game,” Ashwin said.
It felt like a hard slap,” the 33-year-old said.
“Robin Uthappa and Mark Boucher taught me harsh lessons as I bowled 14th, 16th, 18th, and 20th over at RCB. That youth in me never told me that it was a challenge. I found it as an opportunity to pick wickets.”
“I didn’t get wickets but went for 40 or 45 runs and put my team into a hole as the next game went into Super Over and we lost it, and I was dropped from the squad. It felt like a hard slap,” the Ashwin said.
He admitted that he had no great relationship with coach Fleming and cited the lack of communication as the reason.
“I had a problem with Stephen Fleming actually that he did n’t seem to have a conversation. I trusted him so much that he had no discussion. So I sat at home watching CSK games and making promises in my head that I’ll turn the tide one day, “Ravichandran Ashwin said.
