Ravichandran Ashwin on Friday said he has liberated himself from the clutches of external and internal pressure, and now he is just looking to play cricket “with a smile on face.” Ashwin made a back-on-the-wall hundred on the first day of the opening Test here against Bangladesh to rescue India from a precarious 144 for six in the company of an equally resolute Ravindra Jadeja. The 38-year-old leveraged on that innings to drive home the point that he now only responds to pressure situations on a cricket field, unlike in the past when he reacted to every needle-point.

“I do enjoy and embrace pressure. There’s no doubt about it. It does give you opportunities to be able to be pushed to a corner and then try and respond. But I was critical too, earlier (of himself and others), because a lot of pressure has been put on me by people. I’ve put pressure on myself,” Ashwin told reporters on Friday.

“The pressure I’ve always responded to – in answering someone, in a performance or in a press conference. But it’s not like that now. I want to play cricket with a smile on my face. I promised myself 4-5 years ago that I won’t respond to anyone, and I’ve been maintaining that till now,” he added.

The mental detachment to situations and people around him has helped Ashwin to clearly demarcate between his primary and secondary suits – bowling and batting.

“Bowling and batting are very separate sports in the same game. One is done consciously, and the other one is done subconsciously.

“For me to compartmentalise both has taken its own due and at this stage, I’m able to sequence that and split both of them,” he began.

So, how did he keep his focus on the batting during his 189-minute innings, spanning over three sessions and consuming 240 balls? Ashwin took precisely the opposite route that he would have taken as a bowler.

“The mind can play tricks because I’m a bowler who plays on 12-18 balls or 24 balls ahead when I’m sequencing it. But as a batter, I shouldn’t do that. So, I just used my experience to focus on the ball and hitting it as I see it,” he noted.

The Chennai man also said he has worked on his batting in the last three years to add more layers to it, so that he can be more versatile from a team perspective.

“So, I have worked a lot (on his batting)… quite a lot on how I can maximise my shots, maximise my game, work on how I can play fast bowling, all that sort of stuff. So, glad it’s coming out nicely. I am pretty content with what’s happening.”

The fructification of his efforts has also left him at a happy space – personally as well as professionally, and he enjoys that a lot in the highly competitive world of modern sport.

“You feel happy about it, having been in a contest and coming out successful out of the contest. So, yeah, the underlying truth is that it gives me a lot of happiness competing in this game.

“This is just a vehicle for me to compete and feel good about myself and be happy at the end of the day,” he elaborated.

India spinner Ravichandran Ashwin does not shy away from a bold comment when talking cricket, and it was no different as he analysed Pakistan’s recent loss to Bangladesh in the first Test at Rawalpindi. Pakistan fell to a dramatic Day 5 defeat, losing to Bangladesh for the first time ever in Tests. In the game, Pakistan captain Shan Masood had declared the first innings at 448, despite the team having lost only six wickets. On a flat wicket, Bangladesh went on to post a higher total, before the Pakistan batting collapsed in the second innings. Ashwin expressed his bamboozlement.

“Teams don’t surrender on a pitch like this. In first-class cricket, strong teams will bat first and hit big,” said Ashwin, speaking on his YouTube channel.

“When I saw the highlights of the match, I understood that it was a proper, tiring collapse on the final day. I haven’t seen that for a long time,” Ashwin admitted.

Ashwin expressed his surprise at how the Pakistan batters got out cheaply in the second innings. Ashwin was highly critical of the Pakistan lower order.

“In the end, when Mohammad Rizwan was staging a fight, Naseem Shah played a shot and got out cheaply. I did not understand what happened. There was nothing on the pitch,” Ashwin said.

Rizwan was the star of Pakistan’s batting throughout the match. He was unbeaten on 171 when Pakistan declared in the first innings, but played a battling 51 amidst difficult circumstances in the second innings.

Former South Africa performance analyst Prasanna Raman, known by the moniker ‘PDogg’, who usually joins Ashwin for his videos, did not mince his words in his critique of the Pakistan batting.

“Bangladesh have no mystery spinners or wrist spinners. There is no threat. If you can’t bat for four sessions on a pitch like that at home, it can mean only one thing. Division 1 and Division 2 cricket needs to be brought in. Otherwise, Test cricket in Pakistan will be destroyed,” said Raman.

Pakistan take on Bangladesh again at Rawalpindi in the second Test on August 30.

While the Indian Premier League (IPL) mega auction is just some months away, the uncertainty over MS Dhoni‘s future in the tournament is still uncertain. Amid the speculations of his retirement, the player has remained tight-lipped about the chances of his participation in IPL 2025. Additionally, a mega auction before the upcoming edition means that things are going to be tough for the Chennai Super Kings (CSK) franchise if they opt to include Dhoni as a player.

43-year-old Dhoni, who called time on his international career in August, 2020, is close to his retirement from cricket. Hence, it would not be a right decision if CSK decide to retain him as it will fill one of the few slots that the franchise will be getting ahead of the auction. Meanwhile, CSK would also not want to exclude the legendary player, who has won five titles for them.

CSK reportedly asked for a reintroduction of a now-scrapped rule. Earlier in IPL, an international player after five years of his retirement would be named in the ‘uncapped’ category. However, this rule was abolished after IPL 2021. CSK reportedly want that rule to back as it would help them retain Dhoni as an ‘uncapped’ player, and utilize the ‘capped’ player category for another potential talent.

Ravichandran Ashwin has put forward his opinions regarding the report of CSK pushing for the rule to be reinstated.

“Will Dhoni play as an uncapped player? That’s a big question mark. The point is correct. He hasn’t played international cricket for many years. He has retired. So, he is an uncapped player. He is not a capped player,” said Ravichandran Ashwin said on his official YouTube channel.

“Can a player like Dhoni play as an uncapped player? That is another conversation. Obviously, if someone talks about Dhoni, everyone will talk about it,” he added.

Dhoni stepped down as the captain of CSK ahead of the start of the season this year, paving the way for Ruturaj Gaikwad to lead the team. Though CSK didn’t qualify for the playoffs, there were plenty of positives to take from Ruturaj’s leadership.