Ravichandran Ashwin says he got scared when Ravi Shastri confronted him in the dressing room after he publicly explained how he dismissed Alastair Cook at Edgbaston. He now believes sharing that information was a mistake.
Speaking on Star Sports’ #CheekySingles on July 24, 2026, Ashwin described walking back into the dressing room after a post-match interview in which he broke down the exact delivery that got Cook out. He found Shastri waiting.
“I was playing a Test match in Birmingham and bowled Alastair Cook. After the match, I was giving an interview and explained how the ball comes out of my hand. When I returned, Ravi bhai was staring at me in the dressing room. I thought, ‘I bowled well, didn’t I?'”
Ravichandran Ashwin, Star Sports #CheekySingles, July 24, 2026
Shastri had not been watching to congratulate him.
“Then he said, ‘Why are you sharing all the secrets?’ I got scared. [Laughs] Honestly, that’s when I realized I shouldn’t have shared those details. I had never felt that way before, but looking back, I understood that explaining what I had bowled and how I did it was a mistake.”
Ravichandran Ashwin, Star Sports #CheekySingles, July 24, 2026
🚨R Ashwin reveals why Ravi Shastri was furious with him after a Test match.🚨
🗣️ I was playing a Test match in Birmingham and bowled Alastair Cook. After the match, during the interview, I explained how the ball came out of my hand and how I bowled that delivery.
When I… pic.twitter.com/4ueTRMml4A
— Central Cricket (@arshdeep3444) July 24, 2026
Ashwin made these remarks on the Star Sports #CheekySingles show on July 24, 2026. Ravi Shastri has not made a public statement on this account at time of publication.
Why was Ravi Shastri angry at Ravichandran Ashwin?
The incident goes back to India’s first Test against England at Edgbaston in 2018. Ashwin dismissed Alastair Cook with a delivery that had drift, dip, and turn. India lost the match by 31 runs despite Virat Kohli scoring 149.
After the match, Ashwin stood in front of the cameras and explained in detail how that delivery came out of his hand. Not a passing comment but a detailed breakdown: the grip, the wrist position, the release.
This was not the first time on that tour. Ashwin had also appeared on Sky Sports’ The Masterclass, hosted by former England cricketer Ian Ward. The show has featured Shane Warne, Muttiah Muralitharan, Ricky Ponting, Jacques Kallis, and Curtly Ambrose. Ward got Ashwin to break down his carrom ball and off-spin variations on camera, in full detail. Shastri felt both moments crossed the same line.
What makes Ashwin’s #CheekySingles account significant is how it reads against what he said in December 2024. Days after retiring from international cricket, he appeared on the Sky Sports Cricket Podcast with Nasser Hussain and Michael Atherton.
“I got a real pasting from Ravi Shastri for doing that masterclass. I’m sure you’ve heard about that from him. I think he had his point, but somehow, inside me, I never felt insecure about it.”
Ravichandran Ashwin, Sky Sports Cricket Podcast, December 2024
In that account, Ashwin was composed and essentially unmoved. He acknowledged Shastri had a point but made clear his own position had not shifted. In July 2026, the same story ends differently. He says he got scared. He says it was a mistake.
Insider Read:
A bowling variation is not just a technique. It is the product of years of repetitive practice, thousands of deliveries in the nets, building muscle memory until the wrist, the fingers, and the release all fire consistently without conscious thought. That consistency is what makes the variation dangerous at Test level.
When you stand in front of a camera and explain exactly how the ball comes out of your hand, you are giving the opposition the blueprint to read it. A top-order batter who knows what your wrist is doing has one fewer question to solve at the crease. Against a player like Cook at Edgbaston, that one question matters.
The deeper cost is this: the variation does not disappear from your hand. But its most important quality, surprise, has been compromised. The surprise was the return on an investment that took years to build into muscle memory. Shastri was not being secretive for its own sake. He was protecting the payoff on Ashwin’s own work. Ashwin calling it “a mistake” in 2026 suggests he has arrived at the same conclusion.
Sources:
Star Sports #CheekySingles, Ravichandran Ashwin, July 24, 2026
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