India spinner R Ashwin praised former Sri Lanka captain Kumar Sangakkara while speaking about him in an interview with his new IPL franchise, Rajasthan Royals (RR). Ashwin was bought by Rajasthan in the IPL 2022 mega-auction for INR 5 crore earlier this month.
Ashwin reminisced his first meeting with Sangakkara on the Sri Lanka tour and he called the RR's director of cricket a 'lovely gentleman'. He even mentioned his face-off with the Sri Lankan great on the field and bragged about getting better of him a few times.
"Sanga is a lovely gentleman, whenever I've interacted with him. The first time I met him was when we were having dinner with Dinesh Karthik in Sri Lanka and that was the first time I met Sanga. We were on a tour to Sri Lanka and a lovely gentleman and quite an intellectual man. So, I am looking forward to a good connection with him and discussing a lot of cricket," he said.
Ashwin was part of Sangakkara's last Test match in 2015, and he had dismissed him in both innings. India won that match by 278 runs and KL Rahul was the Player of the Match.
"I played a couple of Test matches, dismissed him a few times. It's safe to say that Sanga retired then and there because, you know all these big batters when they get out to a certain bowler, they make plans and they come out hungrier, trying to dominate you. But I was, in a way, you know, happy that I dismissed him, happy that he was going to retire and I was a part of that game and quietly relaxed inside that he will not come up front and battle against me again," he added.
Sangakkara retired after playing 134 Tests, 404 ODIs, and 56 T20Is for Sri Lanka; scoring 12,400 runs in Tests, and 14,234 runs in ODI.
