'This guy better not come to India' - R Ashwin reveals story behind chatter with Tim Paine during SCG Test

Ravichandran Ashwin has been a very handy batter for India in his international career. He has five Test centuries to his name. The senior off-spinner is known for his brave fightback at the 2021 SCG Test that helped India earn a hard-fought draw to keep the four-match series alive at 1-1.

Lately, the Tamil Nadu cricketer explained the reason behind giving a befitting reply to former Australia Test skipper Tim Paine with his ‘Wanna get you to India’ remark. Ashwin said that Paine was continuously sledging the Indian batters throughout the fourth innings.

It so happened that when Ashwin had come out to bat and was marking his stance, the veteran Aussie stumper said, “Can’t wait to get you to the Gabba, Ash”.

We had a discussion on the way Tim Paine was batting through the series: Ravichandran Ashwin

“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. I kept telling these guys and we got a very different sort of a short leg position, which was forward short leg and then we usually have a leg slip. We had a chat… Rahane, myself, Vihari and we 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’,” Ashwin said during the trailer launch of the Voot Select’s web series Bandon Mein Tha Dum.

“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. 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,” he added.