Picture Credit: X
During the fifth and final day’s play in the fourth Border-Gavaskar Trophy (BGT) Test match, when India were fighting hard against Australia to secure a draw in their second innings, Ravichandran Ashwin sent out a couple of cryptic posts on X, sparking a major controversy. The 38-year-old spoke about how good leaders are willing to scrap it out till the end, which led to the fans wondering whether he was taking a dig at Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli for losing their wickets cheaply in Melbourne.
Notably, India were given a target of 340 runs in 92 overs at the start of day five in the Melbourne Test match, and the Australian bowlers were quite exceptional with the ball in the first session, not allowing any breathing space to the Indian batters. In their bid to break the shackles, Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli attempted attacking strokes, which didn’t work out well for them, getting dismissed against Pat Cummins and Mitchell Starc respectively.
Ravichandran Ashwin retired from international cricket prior to the MCG Test
A couple of hours after the dismissal of these two batters, Ravichdnaran Ashwin took to this official X account to post, “Good leaders emerge when they show resolve for a scrap,” hinting at a potential disagreement with the leadership group of the Indian cricket team after retiring from international level prior to the MCG Test match. He went on to quote his own post just a couple of minutes later, which read, “This tweet isn’t for people who own fan clubs”, which led to many believing that his posts weren’t for Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli.
But, with the rumours about Ravichandran Ashwin in regard to a rift with the Indian cricket team, especially their leaders Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli, gathering steam online and in the news, he sent out a clarification on his earlier posts. The off-spin bowler remarked that he was talking about Yashasvi Jaiswal’s willingness to scrap in the middle till the end, which allowed him to score 84 runs in 208 balls, bringing India to within touching distance of drawing the Melbourne Test.
“Now a days, implied meaning can be taken out of context. I was referring to Jaiswals wonderful scrap today. Peace out folks,” wrote Ravichandran Ashwin in his final post about the matter on X.
