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In life and in cricket, I would rather fail than play safe, says Ravichandran Ashwin

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Engineer, cricketer, a popular youtuber and now an author too. Parallel processing or multi-tasking comes easy to R Ashwin, who would rather fail than play safe whether it’s life or cricket.

The 37-year-old off-spinner, one of the sharpest minds in international cricket right now, is also a refreshingly candid voice with 516 Test wickets lending considerable weight to his views.

He is currently enjoying the critical success of his book “I Have The Streets: A Kutti Cricket Story’. Co-authored by Sidharth Monga and published by Penguin Random House, it chronicles Ashwin’s life till 2011 and also gives a peak into his mind, which enjoys probability analysis as much as decoding a difficult batter.

“I am living my life, that’s it. I am not thinking about accomplishing ‘A’, ‘B’ or ‘C’ (targets). I am staying in the moment. I am a creative person in general, and if I feel I want to do something, I will go ahead and do it. (Whether it’s) right or wrong, is something that I will assimilate later,” Ashwin told PTI in an exclusive interview.

He wasn’t always this fearless though. There was an insecure side to him as a child but he outgrew it as time went by, realising that his fears were paralysing him.

Once that was dealt with, Ashwin says he became somewhat unflappable and it has been evident in his growth as a cricketer. From bowling carrom balls on Chennai’s streets as a kid, his metamorphosis into India’s premier spinner has been quite a ride.

He has taken criticism on the chin and has responded with a bagful of wickets, refusing to let that “outside noise” disturb the equilibrium of his mind. And it is this system optimisation, as the engineer in him would say, which allows him to take risks, and not be afraid of failure.

“I’m not insecure at all. I would rather fail in life than be absolutely safe. That’s my character. I don’t have the common insecurities that people have,” he asserts with the same clarity with which he decodes complex cricket laws in his social media feeds, which don’t take long to become viral trends.

“Breaking away from my insecurity (as a child) gave me a great insight into how I can exploit somebody else’s insecurity. And that’s how I see cricket or life in general,” he explained, letting out perhaps the secret of his understated aggression on the field.

Coming back to parallel processing, the engineering jargon for execution of multiple computations at the same time, Ashwin said the COVID crisis, during which almost everyone battled the fear of loss, was the time he recalibrated his approach to life and realised that in the end, he had just one chance to do what he wanted.

Out came the youtube channel during the lockdown and his articulate views on cricket, cricket laws and cricketers now have over 1.5 million subscribers.

It shouldn’t be forgotten that like most people around him, Ashwin too battled the trauma of seeing his loved ones hospitalised due to the dreaded infection at that time.

“The time that I have is pretty limited. I do plan but for me it’s about living life. I felt cricket took away a lot of my time since 2010 (his India debut) but COVID gave me a chance to take a break, and you know, assess where I was,” he recalls.

“It (the COVID-forced break) has given me wings over the last four years to be able to express myself, expand my creativity zones and so on and so forth,” he says, referring to his success as a rare outspoken voice in Indian cricket.

According to him, it all boils down to being fearless or having the ability to see the fun side of risks, something that a visit to a casino taught him back in 2009.

“If you go to the Casino, thinking of how much money you will make, you will pretty much end up without a rupee. But when you go with the intention of having fun and wanting to lose the money that you have, you always go back a much richer person. It was actually a big learning experience,” he explains.

But that’s not his only point of reference for life lessons, he could pick those up as easily from a movie, or a web series or books.

Talking of books, he knows that telling one’s story to the world is fraught with risk.

It is not limited to opening up a hitherto unseen side of yours to people who might judge without knowing. There’s also the danger of unknowingly hurting others when unpleasant experiences become public knowledge.

“I think hurting someone is an immensely painful journey. But if tomorrow I do write about hurtful instances of mine then it’s because people who are on the other side, will have hurt me. They are obviously gonna feel bad about it, because nobody intentionally hurts you,” he says, underscoring his belief in the inherent goodness of individuals.

And that’s why he prefers to look at painful episodes as life lessons, harsh but necessary to build a person. He details one such instance in his book when, during his time with Chennai Super Kings, a team official refused to entertain his plea for a good IPL ticket in 2010 despite the fact that he was a major contributor to the side’s success that season.

“Look, people who give you an opportunity to learn harsh lessons in life are Gurus in my book. I didn’t want to go and confront the guy. But for me it is an incident, it happened, and it fuelled the fire in me.

“I wanted to become a better person. I wanted to become a better cricketer. I am thankful for the person who did that to me, because I think in some way or the other he fuelled my desire to do well,” he says.

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IPL 2025: Rabada returns home due to personal reasons

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Gujarat Titans pacer Kagiso Rabada has returned to South Africa from IPL 2025 due to ‘personal reasons’. 

The South Africa speedster played in the first two games for the Titans in which he took two wickets for 83 runs.

“Kagiso Rabada has returned to South Africa to deal with an important personal matter,” Gujarat Titans said in a statement on Thursday.

The 29-year-old pacer was not picked for Gujarat Titans’ match against Royal Challengers Bengaluru at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium on Wednesday. 

Arshad Khan was drafted into the playing XI in place of Rabada, and the left-arm pacer picked up the key wicket of Virat Kohli early in the innings. 

In the absence of Rabada, GT could be relying on his South African teammate Gerald Coetzee or Afghanistan all-rounder Karim Janat.

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IPL 2025: Siraj, Buttler shine as Gujarat thump RCB

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Jos Buttler made a fifty marked by creativity and sustained aggression to support the impeccable spell of Mohammed Siraj as Gujarat Titans (GT) carved a smooth eight-wicket win over Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) in their Indian Premier League (IPL) match at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru on Wednesday.

Buttler (73 not out, 39b, 5×4, 6×6) and B Sai Sudharsan (49, 36b) added 75 runs off 45 balls for the second wicket, as the Titans ended up at 170 for two in 17.5 overs while chasing RCB’s 169 for eight.

However, the Gujarat side’s chase did not start as they would have liked, losing skipper Shubman Gill for a laboured 14.

The Titans’ skipper clobbered Bhuvneshwar Kumar for a six but fell in the very next ball to the pacer, lobbing him to Liam Livingstone in the deep.

But it brought together Sudharsan and Buttler, who extracted runs off the RCB bowlers in contrasting style.

Sudharsan’s innings was an antithesis to the modern T20 ethos, as it was all about elegantly timed shots such as a wristy flick for a boundary off Yash Dayal or a square cut for four off the same bowler.

There was a touch of impishness too to the innings when he moved across and scooped pacer Josh Hazlewood for a six over the stumper’s head.

However, a second attempt to play a similar shot off the Australian ended his stay, giving a simple catch to Jitesh Sharma. 

But Sudharsan’s dismissal, which came in the immediate aftermath of RCB taking the second ball in the 13th over, was a minor jitter in Gujarat’s chase, which was marshalled so effectively by Buttler.

The Englishman was slightly jittery to begin with but once he found the right gears, he was unstoppable, fetching those thunderous shots off the shelf regularly.\

Buttler reached his fifty with a sumptuous six off spinner Livingstone over long-on off 31 balls and his imperious touch was evident in the three sixes he hammered off Hazlewood to finish the match.

Buttler and Impact Sub Sherfane Rutherford (30 not out, 18b) added 63 runs for the third wicket as Gujarat strolled home.

Earlier, Siraj led a group of fired-up GT bowlers as they limited the vaunted RCB batting unit to 169 for eight despite a providential 54 by Livingstone.

Once the Titans decided to bowl first, they would not have envisioned such a domination over a potent batting line-up even considering a rather unexpectedly slow and grippy pitch.

The slip-down started with the wicket of Virat Kohli (7), who began with a lovely cover driven four off Siraj (4-0-19-3).

But the ace batter fell to left-arm seamer Arshad Khan, who came in for Kagiso Rabada, attempting a pull that ended in the hands of Prasidh Krishna at fine leg.

Thereafter the RCB top-order was poleaxed by GT bowlers led by Siraj, who joined the side after a seven-season stint in the red and gold jersey ahead of IPL 2025.

Phil Salt, who was dropped on zero by Buttler off Siraj, skipper Rajat Patidar and Devdutt Padikkal paraded back to the hut as RCB slumped to 42 for four in 6.2 overs.

However, Salt, who slammed Siraj for a 105 metre six, and Devdutt might feel a tinge of regret because both of them tried to give space to themselves for big shots only to get castled by Siraj.

However, the Royal Challengers found some stability through Jitesh Sharma (33, 21b) and Livingstone (54, 40b, 1×4, 5×6) as they added 52 runs off 38 balls for the fifth wicket.

The impressive left-arm spinner R Sai Kishore (2/22), who varied his line and pace exemplarily, broke the alliance, dismissing Jitesh, who skied him to Rahul Tewatia.

It was a redemption point for Tewatia as well because he had earlier dropped Livingstone on 9 off Sai Kishore.

It proved costly for GT as the English batter hammered an off-colour Rashid Khan for three sixes in an over, two in a row, to reach his fifty in 39 balls.

Livingstone milked 46 precious runs for the seventh wicket with Tim David to take RCB past the 150-run mark.

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India’s Home Schedule Announced! Guwahati to host Maiden Test

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Ahmedabad, Kolkata, New Delhi and Guwahati will host the four Tests that India will play in the 2025 home season.

India will host the West Indies for a two-Test series with the games scheduled in Ahmedabad and Kolkata starting October 6.

India will also play two Tests against South Africa in New Delhi and Guwahati respectively from November 18. Guwahati will make its Test debut.

The BCCI announced the schedule for the home season on Wednesday.

Besides the Tests, India will host South Africa for three ODIs and five T20s.

West Indies tour of India:

First Test in Ahmedabad from October 6.


Second Test in Kolkata from October 14.

South Africa tour of India:
First Test in New Delhi from November 18.
Second Test in Guwahati from November 26.

First ODI in Ranchi on November 30.
Second ODI in Raipur on December 3.
Third ODI in Vizag on December 6.

First T20 in Cuttack on December 9.
Second T20 in Chandigarh on December 11.
Third T20 in Dharamsala on December 14.
Fourth T20 in Lucknow on December 17.
Fifth T20 in Ahmedabad on December 19. 

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