"Told My Wife Australia Series Could Become My Last": R Ashwin Post Bangladesh Tour

Unarguably an icon for this generation of cricketers, Ravichandran Ashwin's numbers speak for themselves. The spinner has tormented batting attacks from all across the world, especially in red-ball cricket. However, there was a phase in Ashwin's life where an injury forced him to think long and hard about his career. In fact, Ashwin had told his wife Prithi that the home series against Australia (earlier this year) could become his last. In an interview, Ashwin opened up on that phase in his career and more.

"I'm very proud of what I've done in my life not just because of wickets or runs. But how consistently I have been to able to reinvent myself. One thing that really plagues cricketers or anybody as they grow old is insecurity. For me, it's how cricketers get locked when they get older and when they get experienced; you want to hold on to something so tight, that you eventually end up breaking your own neck," Ashwin told Indian Express when asked how he has evolved with age.

Speaking of the knee issue, Ashwin said that he felt his career was on the brink of its conclusion not long ago.

"When I came back from Bangladesh, I told my wife that the Australia series could become my last series. I used to have some knee issues. I told I am going to change my action because it really got a lot of momentum and with that when I was landing, my knee was buckling a little bit. I hadn't done enough workload because of the T20 World Cup but I was not just not happy with the way the ball was coming, it was just scrambling a little bit here.

"By the second Test (in Bangladesh) it started to pain. It was really swelling up. So just thinking okay, how do I do this? Because I bowled really well for three-four years, right? To change my