“Ishant crossed the line but will learn,” Ashwin

India spinner Ravichandran Ashwin has said that Ishant Sharma might have “overstepped the line” during the deciding Test against Sri Lanka recently but backed the pacer to learn from the experience. A lot has been said about Ishant’s aggression that cost him a one-match Test ban.

Ashwin defended his teammate, saying he would come out stronger. “I think everybody needs to be who they are. Everybody playing cricket wants to be aggressive. Some people are aggressive from within, some people are more expressive. Ishant was aggressive, he won us the Test match,” Ashwin said while speaking to a leading TV channel in India.

“He might have overstepped the line but that doesn’t mean we go overboard and have a go at him. I think he will learn from this experience, he will come back, be aggressive but in a more controlled manner, and win a lot more games for us.”

Crediting Test captain Virat Kohli for backing him as a frontline tweaker, off-spinner Ashwin said that the young leader has always helped his teammates to cross barriers. Ashwin, who played a leading role (21 wickets in 3 matches) in India’s 2-1 series win against Sri Lanka early this month, said that his captain’s faith in his abilities worked out well for him. “I want to be the best in whatever I do. Whenever he hands the ball over, I can be rest assured that I will get what I want and I am always backed. And that’s something not just between me and him. I think he has done that with everybody in the team. Whoever he has backed, he has backed them and helped them cross barriers,” he added.

Ashwin is not happy with critics trying to take away the credit by terming the Angleo Mathews-led unit a weak side. “If you see both the teams, they were very similar. Both had similar number of matches under their belt. So I don’t see any reason why you want to take away from the fact that it was a great effort to win a series, coming back from 0-1,” he said.