Let’s get right to it, here’s a review of I Have the Streets: A Kutti Cricket Story by R Ashwin and Sidharth Monga.
Is R Ashwin’s I Have the Streets: A Kutti Cricket Story Worth your time?
Absolutely. This is a must-read for cricket fans, especially those who have followed Ashwin but never understood how he became the cricketer he is today.
Given Ashwin’s public image as ‘The Scientist,’ I was expecting a book filled with technical breakdowns and tactical detail. What I found and what makes this book so special is how much it humanizes him.
Ashwin is not just a cutthroat competitor who is ready to run you out once you step out of the crease. He is just like any of us: a boy with a dream, a man with self-doubts.
Through his story, you see someone who loves the game deeply, questions everything, and constantly tries to better himself all while navigating health issues, isolation, and a bit of awkwardness.
It is not just a book about cricket. It is a story about belonging.
Read It For
- Understanding a cricketer’s view of the Indian cricketing ecosystem from tennis ball matches, grade school cricket, all the way to the international stage
- Ashwin’s early impressions of the likes of Pujara, Jadeja, Aniruddha Srikkanth, his awe for Laxmipathy Balandy, Dinesh Karthik, and the broken dreams of S Sharath
- Learning how Ashwin got into the game with stories about his father to his memories of watching Tendulkar in Chennai
- Mentorship with WV Raman and what practice Ashwin did to take his game to the next level
- His playful nostalgia when describing his street cricket friends:
“Sai Kumar, the proper corporate guy. Vivek, a failed cricketer…Raj Kumar, the ‘Jacques Kallis’ from the Silver Foxes.”
You get to learn about local teams like Jolly Rovers and Alwarpet, how Ashwin found the carrom ball from local cricketer SK, how his views around the rules of the game evolved, his awkward interactions, his fitness struggles and burning CDs from an analyst to look at his own game. You learn about his batting development, evolution into a spinner, and changes in action.
The book has no fluff, it gets straight to the point moving from incidents to the incidents, season to season.
Don’t Read It For
A career biography. The story ends with the 2011 ODI World Cup win. If you were expecting dressing room insights about Indian cricket from 2011-2024, you won’t find them here. You will find some glimpses of his rise between 2009-2011, but this is more of a memoir than career in retrospect.
Rating: 4.5/5
I Have The Streets Where to Buy, and Details
Title Name: I Have the Streets: A Kutti Cricket Story
Authors: Ravichandran Ashwin and Sidharth Monga, Foreword by Rahul Dravid
Where to Buy: Amazon
Publisher Summary: “Ravichandran Ashwin is arguably the greatest match-winner for India in Test cricket. The fastest man to 300 Test wickets, he was a part of the team that won the 2011 World Cup in the ODI format. In T20 cricket, he has won two IPL titles and a Champions League T20. He is a feisty offspinner and more than a handy batter. But that’s only half the tale.
This nuanced portrait delves deep to paint a candid picture of a cricketer’s life before cricket―his struggles with health issues as a child, a middle-class family’s unwavering fight and determination to give him the resources he needed for a professional career in the sport, and the little joys of growing up in a cricket-mad gully.
How does a champion sportsman view the world? What drives him on and off the field? One of the more articulate and thoughtful cricketers, in this book, R. Ashwin tells his story with Sidharth Monga.”
Publisher: Ebury Press (an imprint of Penguin Random House)
Release Date: January 7, 2025
Length: 173
Thank you all for reading! If you read the book, what were your thoughts?
Other Articles on R Ashwin
Before you Go, Consider Supporting and buying my book on Amazon!
Amazon Link: Power Play: 10 Life Lessons from the Sport of Cricket: Border Gavaskar Trophy 2020-21 Edition
Other Book and Movie Reviews
© Copyright @Nitesh Mathur and Broken Cricket Dreams, LLC 2023. Originally published on 06/07/2025. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this site’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Broken Cricket Dreams with appropriate and specific direction to the original content (i.e. linked to the exact post/article).
