“Must not encourage superstardom” - Ashwin lashes out on celebrity culture in Indian team

Ever since retiring from international cricket, Ravichandran Ashwin has been very frank in expressing his views on various facets of the game. After bashing Ben Duckett and England, he had some sharp advice to offer to the current Indian men’s players on the team's celebrity culture.

“It is important to normalise things in Indian cricket. We must not encourage this superstardom and super celebrities within the Indian cricket team,” Ashwin said on his Hindi YouTube channel, ‘Ash Ki Baat’.

Ashwin, who is popular for using Tamil pop cultural references on his main channel to connect with his audiences, advised his fellow cricketers to behave normally and be relatable to the fans. 

“We must normalise all these things going forward. We are cricketers. We are not actors or superstars,” the veteran off-spinner said. 

“We are sportspersons, and we must be someone that the common people should resonate with and can compare themselves with. For example, if you are a Rohit Sharma or a Virat Kohli, who have achieved so much. When you hit one more century, it is not just about your achievement anymore. It should be the business as usual, and our goals should be bigger than these achievements.”

Ashwin also felt that India are carrying one spinner too many to the Champions Trophy, starting February 19. India will play all their games in Dubai, which isn’t heaven for spinners despite being a slow pitch. 

“Five spinners in Dubai? I don’t know. I think we are one spinner too many, if not two,” he said.

“The two left-arm spinners alongside Hardik Pandya are your best all-rounders. So both Axar Patel and Ravindra Jadeja are going to play. Hardik will also play and Kuldeep will play. 

"If you want Varun Chakravarthy in the team, then you will have to make a pacer sit out and use Hardik as your second pacer. Otherwise, you will have to drop a spinner to bring in a third seamer,” Ashwin said.