“I've seen him talk a lot about how he took us down” - Ravichandran Ashwin opens up about the one regret in his life

Retired Indian cricketer Ravichandran Ashwin has opened up on the regret he has from his illustrious career. The veteran witnessed a series loss at home to England early in his career. He revealed that he still remembers how Kevin Pietersen took on India's spin-bowling attack in Mumbai in the 2012 series.

Helped chiefly by Cheteshwar Pujara's 135, India reached a total of 327 in their first innings. Visiting captain Alastair Cook played a gritty knock of 122. However, the highlight of the innings was Pietersen's 233-ball 186 as all three spinners in Ashwin, Harbhajan Singh, and Pragyan Ojha struggled. It helped set up a 10-wicket win for England.

Speaking to Michael Atherton and Nasser Hussain on Sky Sports, the 38-year-old admitted that he had got his bowling technicality all wrong in that series.

"I have one regret in life. I know KP is a very proud man, I've seen him talk a lot about how he took us down in Mumbai. Very early in my career, in the formative years, things on the technical side that went wrong put me on the path of excellence. I wanted to take on KP every single time after that."

Ashwin also hailed Cook as one of the best he bowled to, saying:

"He's a wonderful batter but anyone that didn't have a really sound defence was someone I fancied because I'm very good at picking up players who step out, players who sweep. In that particular series against KP and Alastair Cook, one of the finest batters I've bowled to, my alignments were so bad."

With England winning their first series on Indian soil in 28 years, the Tamil Nadu-born cricketer endured one of the worst series of his career. In four Tests, he managed only 14 wickets at 52.64.

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"Ever since 2012, it was all about finding different solutions" - Ravichandran Ashwin

Ravichandran Ashwin. (Image Credits: Getty)

Nevertheless, the off-spinner believes that particular series was a precursor to him becoming a world-class performer in the next 10 years.

"For the rest of my career, ever since 2012, it was all about finding different solutions. I'm very grateful for the series going that way, because if it hadn't happened, I might not have set myself on the path to excel as a bowler because to excel as bowler it's very internal rather than external."

With 537 wickets in 106 Tests, the champion cricketer is the most prolific off-spinner produced by India.