Regarding Michael Vaughan’s assertion that Team India is among the most ‘underachieving’ teams globally, Ravichandran Ashwin answered.
India lost the first Test by a significant margin, blowing a great chance to win a series in South Africa, so the team’s tour of South Africa didn’t yield the kind of outcome they were hoping for. India’s dismal performance in the first Test match of the series led a former captain of England to label the side as among the most ‘underachieving’ in world cricket. Veteran spinner Ravichandran Ashwin disagrees with Vaughan’s remarks, which even caused other former Indian cricket players to echo them.
In a video posted to his YouTube page, Ashwin responded sharply, stating that the comment “made him laugh” in light of how successful India has been playing cricket throughout the world, particularly in the Test format.
“Michael Vaughan declared that India is an underachieving squad following the first Test. It is true that we haven’t had an ICC trophy in ages. We consider ourselves to be the game’s powerhouses. However, among the top traveling teams in the area has been the Test team. We have witnessed numerous excellent outcomes,” Ashwin said.
“A large number of specialists from within our own nation began to wonder if India is an underachieving squad after he mentioned that. To be honest, I laughed at it. Imagine yourself. Simply flip the circumstances. SA won the toss and elected to bat first in this Test.
Wasn’t there a danger that SA could have been all out by 65 if they had won the toss and batted first in Centurion? Thanks to Virat and Shreyas’ collaboration from then on, we were saved even though India was staring down the barrel at 20/3.”
Thus, the differences between cricket and Test cricket are negligible. I think we critique and nitpick too much and get into superfluous details in a country like India, where we talk about cricket in every possible way and consider it a religion. These, I believe, are blinding us “Ashwin remarked.
In answer to a query from former Australia batter Mark Waugh, Vaughan had stated on Fox Sports: “They haven’t won much recently.” They are, in my opinion (an underachieving side). Nothing is won by them. When did they last experience success? They ought to have accomplished more given their talent and skill set.”
Even though Ashwin acknowledged that India had lost the last two World Test Championship finals, he believes the team has performed admirably in the longest format of the game when it comes to overseas missions.”We must acknowledge that it remains a sport. A strong cricket team with mental toughness and mental acumen can, in fact, recover from any disadvantage, as this Indian squad has often demonstrated. We did really lose two WTC finals. I totally accept it. However, a comeback is always conceivable in Test series.”
