Ravichandran Ashwin announced his return to the Test side at home with a remarkable five-wicket scalp on Day three of the first Test against South Africa at Vishakapatnam. The specialist Test spinner had a long break from international cricket and was a part of various domestic leagues before being called for the tour of West Indies. Being an integral part of India's Test side, R Ashwin did miss out on quite some action over the last few months in the international circle but he made his comeback in style as he lead India's bowling attack along with Ravindra Jadeja. R Ashwin was asked a cheeky question in the press conference at the end of the day's play about why he doesn't watch cricket on television anymore and his reply left the people in the room in peals of laughter. 'I have two kids...', said R Ashwin following which he went on to elaborate that he missed playing cricket and was urged to do so every time he watched the game and hence he refrained from doing so. 

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'Tried different things'

Ravichandran Ashwin, playing his first Test match since December last year, says he badly missed playing for India in the last 10 months, so much so that the wily off-spinner stopped watching the game. The 33-year-old, who has been playing only one format for India since July 2017, last played the Adelaide Test from December 6 to 10, the first of the four on the tour of Australia. To his disappointment, Ashwin did not feature in the playing eleven in the following Test series against the West Indies in August-September when India only played one spinner in Ravindra Jadeja. "To stay away from cricket itself was very tough for me. In order to substitute, I played whatever games I got. I tried and made an opportunity for myself to go and play some county cricket (for Nottinghamshire). I tried and played the TNPL as much as I could, played some league cricket in Chennai," he said."It was very important to tick those numbers off because that is essentially where I came from. Going back and playing there is probably the best thing that could have happened," said Ashwin, who when asked about time away from national duty. After claiming his 27th five-wicket haul in Tests on Friday, Ashwin showed that he remained India's go-to spinner in home conditions.

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