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Ashwin envisages an invincible India

dubai - It had hardly been a day since he was announced as the ICC Cricketer of the Year as well as the Test Cricketer of the Year but India's R Ashwin was on a plane from his hometown of Chennai, jetting across the Arabian Sea and into Dubai.
Stellar may be too light a word to sum up the off-spinner's year as he went on to became the first spinner and only the third bowler after pace aces Dale Steyn of South Africa and Australia's Mitchell Johnson, as well as the third Indian after Sachin Tendulkar and Rahul Dravid to land the Sir Garfield Sobers Trophy.
But then, it was just another normal day, perhaps a tad busier for Ashwin as he indulged with 10 to 13 year olds for a masterclass at the GEMS Wellington Academy and was at the Shyam Bhatia Cricket Museum thereafter to launch the ESM Cricket Academy on Friday afternoon.
Those twin crowns of ICC Cricketer of the Year and Test Cricketer of the Year were sitting quite easy on his head. For Ashwin, it is the hunger, that of striving for excellence with the Indian team.
"There is no bucket list as such. I would say all my goals are based on the team," Ashwin told Khaleej Times in a chat on Friday.
"We have just won an entire season of Test matches and we want to be as invincible as Australia was at one point of time. They were winning everything left, right and centre. It is a great benchmark to set. If at all we can get there, if at all we can do it, we can be as delighted as we can be but we are putting every single hard yard and step that we need to be that invincible team that we want to be," he added.
India, the No.1 Test team in the world are currently in the midst of an unbeaten streak that stretches to 18 matches after five series wins. Their last defeat was against Sri Lanka in Galle last August.
A reason to that is the new ethos set in motion by Test captain Virat Kohli.
"I think it is very well measured and managed and it is not just the aggressive nature alone. There is an attitude shift that has happened within the team, in terms of the new boys coming in, what they bring in. There is more receptiveness to new characters, trying to allow people to be who they are and try and see that one final point we have to reach is excellence. And we are trying to make sure that everybody buys into it and we try and encourage each other in trying to achieve it because if you pour 10 bottles of water, the bucket is going to get full," said the 30-year-old.
"This is a completely new generation where guys just come in and speak their mind. And as people who have been in the team before, we need to get in terms with them to understand that they will express what they have to express and we will have to imbibe them in and try to grow along with them. There is no senior or junior or anything in this team," added Ashwin.
james@khaleejtimes.com