Off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin feels that the beauty about Test cricket is that you are always aspiring to be perfect but you can settle for excellence. The 34-year-old from Chennai, who has captured 409 Test wickets so far.

HIGHLIGHTS

• Ravichandran Ashwin has bagged 409 wickets in Test cricket so far
• I will quit the day I lose urge to learn new things, says Ashwin
• Jasprit Bumrah considers Ashwin as one of the greats of the game

India off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin on Sunday said that competition always brings out the best in him.

“The beauty about Test cricket is you are always aspiring to be perfect but you can settle for excellence, so that”s pretty much I think I do,” Ashwin was quoted as saying by the ICC ahead of the ongoing World Test Championship final between India and New Zealand.

Ashwin always strives to explore something new, something extra in his game and that attitude has paid rich dividends for him throughout his career. He says the day he feels he has lost that urge to improve his craft, he will quit the sport.

“I think whatever I have achieved so far in my career is because of that attitude, did not settle for anything, constantly looking to improve.

“I maintained that if I don”t like doing different things and if I lose the patience to do something new or get satisfied, then I might not play the sport anymore,” he said.

By his own admission, Ashwin doesn”t like to talk much about his own performances, as for him playing the sport and excelling in it is his profession.

“I don”t really read or dwell on my performances to be very honest. To be brutally honest I just hate the fact that I am who I am because of what I do. In India you get a lot of adulation but I am just another normal person who finds peace and happiness playing the sport,” he said.

India pace spearhead Jasprit Bumrah considers Ashwin as one of the greats of the game.

“I think he (Ashwin) is one of the greats of the game because if you look at his records, it speaks for itself. He has done well with the bat as well as with the ball. He has taken more than 400 Test wickets so that doesn”t come by chance,” he said.

India bowling coach Bharat Arun also lavished praise on Ashwin”s work ethics and said he is never satisfied and wants to learn new things daily.

“Ashwin is not very happy with whatever he does, he always loves to come out of his comfort zone and learn new things, develop different angles and that”s what makes him so special,” Arun said.