Former India spinner Ravichandran Ashwin wants the team to forget about the World Test Championship (WTC) and qualifying for the 2027 final when they take on Sri Lanka in the two-Test series, starting Saturday. He advised his former teammates to stay in the present and take it one hour at a time.
India qualified for the first two WTC finals in 2021 and 2023 but missed out on the 2025 one. Their 2025-27 campaign hasn’t gone well, with a home 2-0 whitewash against South Africa making the chances of qualifying quite slim. After Sri Lanka, India will tour New Zealand for three Tests and host a five-Test home series against Australia. They’ll need six to seven wins from these ten Tests to have a shot at the final.
“I’m sure the dressing room will talk
about WTC,” Ashwin said in a video on his YouTube channel, Ash Ki Baat. “But if I were there, my thinking would be—forget WTC, that’s too far away. Now, where are you? You lost a Test series in India. We haven’t had a great time as a Test team. Consider this series as a milestone series and perform well. One day at a time, one session at a time, one hour at a time, one over at a time, one ball at a time,” he added.
“Because in life, this is what’s important. We can talk about the past, we can learn from the past, we can dream about the future. But staying in the present is very difficult. Because today’s present is someone else’s past. So if you stay in the present, your chances of performing in the present are higher. Everyone should stay in the present—in that second, that minute, on the ground—to create good history. Only then do you become a part of history. If you can’t stay in the present, you can’t even dream about the future, and you can’t create history either,” Ashwin said.
