Virat Kohli was forced to admit on Wednesday that Ravichandran Ashwin’s return to the T20 XI against Afghanistan was the “biggest positive” for Team India from their 66-run victory.

It was the first time since the 2017 Champions Trophy final against Pakistan that he was back in India’s blues. The off spinner took 2/14 from his four overs to give India “control in the middle overs”. Ashwin said he was looking forward to it for a while without allowing frustration to affect him.

“The news of me being selected for the World Cup was heartening, I had fun hearing the news in terms of enjoying myself and the gratification of what I wanted to achieve,” he said on the eve of India’s match against Scotland on Friday. “I had special dreams getting into the World Cup, wanting to do special things for the team and after a point in time, trying to prove a point, whether right or wrong, not to anybody else but to yourself.

“Unfortunately, after the first two losses, I did feel a bit low about it. Maybe our chance of qualification took a bit of a dent but after yesterday’s (Wednesday) win, we still do have our fingers crossed and hope things go right. But yes, barring that, it was a special night. Every single delivery that I wanted to execute fell in place.”

Ashwin believes he used the time wisely to refine his skills that he has now been exhibiting at the T20 World Cup.

“I can’t say circle has come around, but the perception of finger spin needs to change,” he said. “Ever since 2017, where I was going through a very good phase of my Test career, I felt I was bowling amazing stock balls and didn’t require anything else. But like I said, the circle stops and that Champions Trophy final was one of those stations where I had to halt and think about my cricket.

“Ever since then, I’ve evolved as a T20 bowler, I've bowled a lot more many deliveries that are so subtle that people keep terming them as carrom balls, off spin and arm balls. I’m trying to create different angles to create different seam positions. The ball to dismiss Gulbadin Naib (on Wednesday) was anything but a carrom ball.

“I have worked on it, and I have got so many options than what I had at that time (2017). When I bowl to a right-hander, I think like a left-arm spinner or a leg spinner, and when I bowl to a left-hander, I think like an off spinner. The thinking creates intent and intent translates into practice.”

Ashwin said he has stayed humble during success while not reading much into his failures. “I believe life is a circle... For me, understanding patterns in my life and career is something I’ve done very well over the last couple of years. Whenever I’ve had a very good stretch of form, I’ve had deep trenches, some very long periods of lull which I don’t want to read too much into. That’s a pattern I’ve embraced.

“The easiest way to cope with it is to keep working hard, expecting an opportunity to turn up at your doorstep and when it happens you have all the options to break open doors, latches and locks.”

Sachin praise

Batting legend Sachin Tendulkar lauded Ashwin’s effort, especially his newly designed ‘back-flip ball’.

“Ashwin’s variation ball, the ‘back-flip ball’, if you see the ball’s seam position it was facing towards leg slip.

The ball Ashwin developed in the nets no one probably got it. This is one of the reasons that Ashwin ended up bowling four overs but did not concede a single boundary in those four overs.”