Ravichandran Ashwin recalls his sledging incident with Tim Paine

The Border-Gavaskar trophy between India and Australia in 2021 was a historic one for all the Indian fans and players as India made a miracle comeback after their humiliation in the first Test match. They got bundled out for only 36 runs. But, they made a huge comeback into the series by winning the series by a margin of 2-1.

Now, a documentary had been released on that historic Test series win named “Bandon Mein Tha Dum.” During the launching event of this, several players like Ravichandran Ashwin and Ajinkya Rahane were invited. There, they opened up on some special moments from the series. Ashwin also shared the sledging saga with former Australian Test captain, Tim Paine.

“Can’t wait to take him to India which would be his last series” – Ravichandran Ashwin

Speaking at the event launch, Ashwin said that Paine started it by saying that he is waiting for India to reach Gabba for the final Test. In reply, Ashwin said that even they are waiting for Paine to come to India and that will be his last Test series.

He said: “I think Vihari will remember why I said that as well. Because we had a discussion on the way Tim Paine was batting through the series. We had a chat… Rahane, myself, Vihari, and I said, ‘Pujara will generally stand at leg slip but this guy won’t stand with the helmet. Let’s put him somewhere else and get this guy under the lid’,”

He also added: “We had this conversation and parked him there in a very awkward position and he (Paine) actually nicked off there. We had a celebration and I told Vihari, ‘This guy better not come to India. If he actually comes to India, he will be going there every single time.”

Ashwin told that it was all in his mind and that’s why he returned it while we went to bat. “At the end of the day, he was having a go at us when we were batting and it just came out of my mind because we had a conversation like that. It was very instantaneous,” Ashwin concluded.

However, Ashwin and Vihari put up a great fight in the third Test match in Sydney and India managed to break the Gabba jinx and won the series on the Australian soil.