As the Indian team prepares for a tough challenge against South Africa For a 2-match Test series, the Freedom Trophy, veteran Ravichandran Ashwin surprisingly revealed the biggest threat or enemy for the Indian cricket team in a video uploaded on Ashwin’s YouTube channel 16 hours ago.
In that 21-minute long video titled ‘SA Tour Diaries: What’s happening with the Test team?’, Ashwin introduced the wicketkeeper-batsman for the first time. KS Bharat before revealing the real enemy of the Indian team. The said person is neither a foreigner nor a coach of a foreign team, but rather a Chennai-born former cricketer Rajgopalan Venkatesh.
Although the 61-year-old never managed to play for India, he has good experience playing in the domestic circuit for Railways. In his First-Class career, Venkatesh played 20 matches, picked 69 wickets and scored 464 runs in 23 innings.
As recent as last month during the ICC Cricket World Cup 2023 in India, Venkatesh was serving as the home coach of the Australian team that defeated India by 6 wickets at the Narendra Modi Stadium.
But who is a local administrator? Ravichandran Ashwin explained that a local coach is someone who takes care of the local needs of a team and during the World Cup, Venkatesh was helping Australia manage all that. He has currently assumed the same position for the Indian team that is touring South Africa.
To that, Ravichandran Ashwin in his YouTube video, introduced R Venkatesh as someone who is one of the biggest enemies of team India.
“So right now he (Venkatesh) is one of the biggest enemies of the Indian cricket team. He was the local coach of Australia’s World Cup-winning cricket team until last month. Why did he do this to us, sir? – asked Ravichandran Aswhin.
“My life was peaceful until that happened. All my peace has been lost since then,” Venkatesh replied to Ashwin.
Ashwin even quipped that Venkatesh, who goes by the nickname ‘Paapa Venkatesh’, was made the scapegoat to which the 61-year-old replied: “A scapegoat who arrived alone.”
The greats Ravichandran Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja, Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma are back to basics
With just 2 days left for the first Test in Johannesburg, the Indian team has been working hard to get a positive result in the Freedom Trophy Series. And the term “Positive” means that the visitors will look to end their losing streak in South Africa in the Tests.
Senior players like Ravichandran Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja, Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma will feature in the first Test with the common goal of finally winning a Test series against the Proteas in their backyard.
However, it will not be easy for them to do so as South Africa coach Shukri Conrad said Rohit Sharma’s men will not be able to cross the ‘Final Frontier’. Kagiso Rabada and Lungi Ngidi have returned to training, while Dean Elgar, who is playing his final Test series, will also play an important role in trying to prevent India from winning the series.
A lot will also depend on Ravichandran Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja, who will have the responsibility of supporting the pacers at the SuperSport Cricket Stadium.