'I'm happy with 5 close friends' - Ravi Shastri gives blunt response to R Ashwin's 'teammates are now colleagues' remark

The World Test Championship (WTC) 2023 final at the Oval was the opportunity for the Indian cricket team to end their 10-year major trophy drought. Unfortunately, that didn't happen as Australia defeated India by a score of 209 runs on June 11 to win the World T20. Men in Blue, however, had a second chance to win the championship but they did not take advantage of it.

Interestingly, the Indian team management decided to bench the No. 1 Test bowler Ravichandran Ashwin for the WTC final. However, he recently broke his silence on getting dropped and said that now all the players play as colleagues, not as friends. 

“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 had said.

“In fact, I believe cricket gets better when you share it. It gets better when you understand another person’s technique and another person’s journey. But it doesn’t happen anywhere close to how much it must happen. Nobody will come for your help. It’s an isolated journey. Of course, you can reach any professional you want to, tap into some coach, you can pay and go, practice, try to feed off them and all that. But sometimes we forget that cricket is a very self-taught sport.”

You will have buddies who are colleagues: Ravi Shastri

Meanwhile, former Indian head coach Ravi Shastri has a different opinion on this and said that the players were always colleagues for himself. Shastri said that whether it's his teammates or fellow commentators, they will always remain colleagues for him.

“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. What I'm saying is, all the time colleagues. Commentary box, colleagues,” Shastri was quoted as saying by Hindustan Times.