Earlier this year, one of Rohit Sharma’s one-liners directed at his teammates during the Test series between India and England at home went viral on social media. Amid the stellar show from the youngsters in the contest against some of the seasoned England cricketers, an impressed Rohit took to Instagram to share a post using that same one-liner: “Garden mein ghoomne wale bande ,” with the picture comprising him along with Yashasvi Jaiswal, Shubman Gill, Sarfaraz Khan and Dhruv Jurel.
On Saturday, at an event in New Delhi, Ashwin, who was also part of that series, revealed why Jaiswal and Gill deserve that tag given by Rohit. The veteran India off-spinner said that the two young India players were given the responsibility of maintaining the ball, of keeping one side shiny, but both of them failed in their task miserably.
“Rohit had said ‘Garden mein ghoomne waale log, yeh toh yeh sach mein garden mein ghoomne wala hi hai’ (these guys are those that roam around in the garden). I can’t remember which Test it was…ball maintenance is a thing, I don’t how many people are aware of that. Whenever you shine the ball, the shiny side is supposed to be kept dry. The ball was passed to Yashasvi and he kept the ball in his hand making the ball wet all over. He then gives it to Shubman Gill, that guy will be catching the ball and tossing it around. The point is that when you use the sweat to shine the ball, it will help in reversing but that comes with a bit of experience,” said Ashwin as Jaiswal, who was part of the event, sheepishly smiled.
Ashwin also opened up about the size of boundaries in the ongoing IPL 2024 season, which has witnessed some unreal scores. As many as eight 250-plus totals have been witnessed in this tournament, with Sunrisers Hyderabad, who posted totals of 277 and 287, leading the chart with three such scores.
“The stadiums built back in the day are not relevant in the modern day. The bats that were used back then were also used for gully cricket. With LED boards of the sponsors being used, the boundary has come in by 10 yards,” Ashwin, one of the leading voices in global cricket, said the Rajasthan Royals bowler.
