India vs Bangladesh: Ravichandran Ashwin© Twitter
Ravichandran Ashwin is indispensable in Indian cricket. One of the highest wicket-takers among active players, on Tuesday, Ashwin tied Sri Lanka's icon Muttiah Muralitharan's record for most Player of the Series awards in Test cricket following his splendid display in the two-match series against Bangladesh. The 38-year-old has been ageing like a fine wine, making the opposition batters dance to his tunes by making the ball obey his command.
Ashwin's efforts were recognised after he made the visitors toil hard whenever they stepped up on the crease. He was adjudged the Player of the Series (POTS), which was his 11th title overall.
He is now tied with Muralitharan, who also bagged 11 POTS awards during his illustrious career. Ashwin will be eager to go past the legendary spinner when he steps out to face New Zealand, who recently endured a 2-0 whitewash against Sri Lanka.
He was asked whether he keeps a count of his 'Player of the Series' awards by former BCCI selector Saba Karim, who was one of the commentators in the India vs Bangladesh 2nd Test.
Ashwin's reply was epic. "I think you are making it sound like I am some serial killer, who is planning all these things, which I am not. Honestly, it probably mattered at one stage of my career, but I am well past that and able to accept whatever comes to me as a result," he said.
"We constantly talk about focusing on the process and not so much on the result. We don't eventually find out what the exact process is. I am glad that I have been able to nail that down and associate my joy and outcomes of a particular day with what I am able to accomplish. For me, the greatest joy of playing the game is to be able to walk out to the net the day after or tomorrow and try something new. And that's the joy, not necessarily the wickets of player of the match/series awards, because you are gonna associate your happiness with that, then you are not going to be happy for a lot more days."