Indian spinner Ravichandran Ashwin recently found himself in a rather amusing situation when he was contacted on WhatsApp by someone impersonating Australian cricketer Adam Zampa. This individual was attempting to collect phone numbers of various Indian players.
Ashwin decided to share screenshots of the chat on Instagram, humorously captioning the post, “Fake Adam Zampa tries to strike.” The post quickly became a hit, with fans applauding Ashwin’s quick wit and clever responses to the imposter.
The fake Zampa requested contact details for players like Abhishek Sharma, Jasprit Bumrah, Sanju Samson, Jitesh Sharma, Rinku Singh, and Shivam Dube. Ashwin played along, jokingly offering to send the list and asking if those names would suffice. He then ingeniously flipped the script, asking the impersonator if he possessed MS Dhoni’s phone number. When the fake Zampa claimed he did, Ashwin promptly requested it in return. The conversation concluded on a hilarious note, with Ashwin quipping that he was “Compiling in Excel” as the imposter continued to press for the player contacts.
This wasn’t Ashwin’s first encounter with online imposters. He recalled a similar incident where someone pretended to be his former Chennai Super Kings teammate, Devon Conway.
“After the IPL concluded, a person messaged me, claiming to be Devon Conway, ‘Hi buddy, how are you?’ and I genuinely replied, ‘We’ll stay in touch. You’re playing in MLC; I’ll watch the games.’ He then proceeded to ask, ‘I’ve lost Virat Kohli’s number, can you share it?’ I found myself wondering why he would ask for Virat’s number, but I hesitated to question him directly, not wanting Devon Conway to misunderstand. So, I took a different approach and provided him with an incorrect number for Virat Kohli,” Ashwin shared on his YouTube channel.
In a separate discussion, Ashwin recently spoke out in defense of young pacer Harshit Rana, particularly after facing questions about Rana’s inclusion in India’s ODI squad against Australia.
“I have consistently maintained that no player should be subjected to personal attacks. When criticism becomes overly personal, it crosses a line. I often think of Sanjay Manjrekar, who has critiqued my career throughout, yet I hold no resentment towards him. What commentators say may be right or wrong, but as long as the criticism remains professional and not personal, I am completely fine with it,” Ashwin stated on his YouTube channel.
Ashwin further expressed his concern regarding the immense psychological impact that harsh social media criticism can have on young athletes.
“Imagine Harshit seeing a video where he is being savagely criticized, especially when he’s about to play a match for India. Wouldn’t that be devastating for him? And what about the impact on his parents and friends? We are certainly free to critique their skills, their playing style, and their performance. However, it should never become personal. A funny remark might be acceptable once or twice, but it should not become a continuous theme. The unfortunate truth is that such negativity thrives because there’s an audience for it. These days, negativity sells. People consume whatever is in demand, and we must collectively endeavor to avoid consuming such content,” he urged.