When Australia’s off-spinner Nathan Lyon picked four crucial wickets to become the highest wicket-taker in India’s second innings, both India captain Rohit Sharma and head coach Rahul Dravid faced further scrutiny.

Now, days after this, Ashwin opened up on being benched for the final and said that there are ‘colleagues’ in the dressing room, rather than ‘friends’.

“This is an era where everybody is a colleague. Once upon a time when cricket was played, all your teammates were friends. Now, they’re colleagues. There’s a big difference because here people are there to advance themselves and to stride ahead of another person sitting to your right or left. So nobody’s got the time to say, ‘okay, boss what are you up to’?” Indian Express quoted Ashwin as saying.

“In fact, I believe cricket gets better when you share it. It gets better when you when you understand another person’s technique and another person’s journey. But it doesn’t happen anywhere close to how much it must happen. Nobody will come for your help. It’s an isolated journey. Of course, you can reach any professional you want to, tap into some coach, you can pay and go, practice, try to feed of them and all that. But sometimes we forget that cricket is a very self-taught sport,” he added.

The remarks by Ashwin perhaps didn’t please former Indian coach Ravi Shastri, who opined there will always be colleagues, no matter whether it’s the dressing room or the commentary box.

“For me, it was always colleagues. You will have buddies who are colleagues. I mean… how many close friends do anyone have? If you go and ask anyone, they will say 4-5… in their life! I’m happy with 5 close friends in my life, I don’t want more than that,” Shastri told The Week.

“What I’m saying is, all the time colleagues. Commentary box, colleagues,” he said further.

Shastri has returned to broadcasting after leaving the head coach role in 2021 and was also part of the commentary team in the WTC Final.

Updated: 24 Jun 2023, 03:33 PM IST