Indian bowler Ravichandran Ashwin recently found himself at the receiving end as a journalist posed a question in ‘pure and clean’ Hindi. Unfazed by his inability to understand the question, Ashwin decided to add humour in his response, leaving everyone in the room splits.
The journalist had asked him a question on the use of the pink ball in the upcoming Test against Bangladesh and whether this would impact the game of cricket. The journalist’s choice of words were badhayi to congratulate Ashwin for ‘completing 250 Test wickets’ and abbhyas satra to describe practice session. There were other words that too sounded wierd even to prolific Hindi speakers. Ashwin has taken 362 Test wickets and not 250 as claimed by the reporter in question.
Ashwin, who hails from Tamil Nadu, came up with an epic reply, “Sir, I’ve worked hard to start to speak in Hindi. Over the years, my Hindi has gotten better. But I have never heard such pure and clean Hindi. So congrats to you. I am still trying to understand what your question was.”
.@ashwinravi99 has improved his Hindi over the years, but here’s a question that nearly bamboozled him ? #INDvBAN pic.twitter.com/IsTjEvF47V
— ESPNcricinfo (@ESPNcricinfo) November 14, 2019
On the use of the pink ball, Ashwin said, “The next Test match (against Bangladesh) is a pink-ball match. This is a great welcoming sign. This was important for a Test country like India. Now office-goers can also come to the ground and watch the game.”
Ashwin’s three-wicket haul in the second innings played a key role in scripting India’s win by an innings and 130 runs over Bangladesh at the Indore Test on Saturday.
