India’s carrom-baller, spin wizard Ashwin bids adieu to international cricket
India's decorated off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin announced his decision to retire from international cricket moments after the Brisbane Test ended in a draw.
Experienced cricket broadcaster and writer Harsha Bhogle revealed the reason why he was missing the Indian Premier League and even called it “soap opera” which gets everyone entertained.
“I’m missing cricket very much. I’m missing being there watching the IPL particularly. I enjoy the IPL as it’s a very low-stress thing for me. You sit back and you can enjoy the game for three hours with the best players in the world,” Bhogle said as quoted by The Guardian.
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“It’s not like an India v Australia Test series that consumes you completely. The IPL is a perfect tournament. It’s everyone’s soap opera. You tune in and are completely entertained,” he added.
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Bhogle also spoke about the importance of Test cricket and how it could be survived in the age of T20 cricket. He asserted a special importance of the Indian captain Virat Kohli in sustaining the grand old format of the game.
“The most important man in Test cricket today is Virat Kohli, simply because he is going out and saying: ‘I want to play Test cricket.’ He is acting as a link between the Rahul Dravid and Sachin Tendulkar generation and the 12-year-olds in India today. Those 12-year-olds are only talking about Test cricket because of Virat Kohli. Otherwise, why would anyone want to play Test cricket in India, when it’s so much easier to play 20-overs cricket?
“In Indian culture, parents look after their children on the understanding that, as they get older, the children will look after them. That’s how our family structure works. That’s what happening in our cricket now. T20 is looking after Test cricket. It’s getting people into the game and showing them the joy of Test cricket, but I believe Test cricket is on very, very thin ice,” the 58-year-old added.
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