"5 Close Friends...": Ravi Shastri On Ravichandran Ashwin's "Teammates Are Colleagues" Take

Indian cricket team spinner Ravichandran Ashwin recently opened up about a variety of topics following the team's loss against Australia in the World Test Championship (WTC) Final. In one of his comments, Ashwin said that there are very less number of 'friends' in the Indian dressing room right now and most of them are 'colleagues'. The remark resulted in mixed reactions from experts and fans with most of them wondering about the equations shared by the cricketers at present. Former India head coach Ravi Shastri was asked about the remark and he had a rather straight forward answer in a recent interaction.

“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 said in an interview with The Week.

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

Ashwin was not included in the WTC Final against Australia with India went with Ravindra Jadeja as the only spin option at The Oval.

“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'?” he told Indian Express.