Never thought my journey would end in opening match: Ravichandran Ashwin on playing just one game in the World Cup

India’s veteran Ravichandran Ashwin admitted that he never thought his journey would end after the opening game of the World Cup 2023. Ashwin played in the first game against Australia, in which he returned with figures of 1-34 in the 10 overs he bowled.

However, the off-spinner didn’t get to play in the remaining matches as Ravindra Jadeja and Kuldeep Yadav were preferred ahead of him.

Ashwin was earlier added to the World Cup squad after Axar Patel was ruled with an injury. The off-spinner revealed he was expected to play against New Zealand but Hardik Pandya’s untimely injury changed everything.

“Never thought that my run at the World Cup would end after playing one match in Chennai, because I was bowling with good rhythm,” Ashwin said on his YouTube channel.

“My return was supposed to come against New Zealand at Dharamsala, Hardik had a heartbreaking injury. Hardik Pandya was an important figure because we did not have an all-rounder to replace him,” Ashwin further added.

Ashwin added that head coach Rahul Dravid and Rohit Sharma had strong plans, and both backed the players to the hilt.

“Both Rahul Dravid and Rohit Sharma said that they had well-laid out, strong plans. This World Cup had us playing an exciting brand of cricket,” Ashwin further added.

Meanwhile, India suffered a heartbreaking loss of six wickets in the final against Australia as they could only put 240 runs on the board which was not enough.

India opted to bowl first in the first T20I against Australia at Vizag.

India Squad: Ishan Kishan(w), Yashasvi Jaiswal, Suryakumar Yadav(c), Tilak Varma, Shivam Dube, Rinku Singh, Axar Patel, Ravi Bishnoi, Arshdeep Singh, Prasidh Krishna, Mukesh Kumar, Washington Sundar, Avesh Khan, Ruturaj Gaikwad, Jitesh Sharma