In the middle of the tributes and praise being showered upon Ravichandran Ashwin, it appears to be a bit churlish to ask, but why now? In the middle of a series? Let’s keep that for later. After paying due salutes to a cricketer whose India career began as a white-ball bowler with a bagful of tricks, but finished as a Test giant. You’d have heard it by now, but this is Ashwin as of today: India’s second-highest Test wicket-taker after Anil Kumble, No 4 on the all-time spinners’ list behind Muthiah Muralitharan, Shane Warne and Kumble; No 7 overall.
Behind those numbers is Ashwin, the competitor — leader of India’s spin attack with success and ferocity, a major figure as India pushed towards become an all-format team capable of taking on anyone anywhere. His alliance with Ravindra Jadeja was to establish India’s unbeatable domestic run in home Test series for over 12 years, before the crushing 3-0 defeat to New Zealand a few months ago.
Earlier in his career, Ashwin was part of India’s two ICC title-winning teams, the 2011 World Cup and the 2013 Champions Trophy, in which he played in two matches each. It was in his 14 away Test victories where Ashwin’s influence must also be recognised. He took 71 wickets in those vital Test wins at an average (22.53) and an economy (2.58) better than his overall record, and a strike rate of 52.3. He was central to India’s 2015 Test series triumph in Sri Lanka after 22 years, player of the series with 21 wickets. When India beat West Indies 2-0 a year later, he was player of the series again, with 17 wickets and two centuries in the two wins.
At home, he loomed in 47 Test victories, 303 wickets @18.16, SR 39.9. Post 2011, India started preparing rank turners at home as a Test match policy following two 4-0, 4-0 drubbings in England and Australia. Ashwin often opened the bowling in Tests, leaving visiting batters hapless and clueless at his accuracy and relentlessness.
He remains a cricket nerd, whose game is always a work in progress, looking for more. It is routine to study opponents, but it’s a special kind of student who watches every ball of an entire series being played by the next team to play India, like he said he did before England toured India in February 2021. His phone has got an app, he says, to sort out speeds and lines of attack, and there’s a data guy on his speed dial. After he was dropped for the 2014 Adelaide Test, Ashwin focussed on his action. Spotting the error and modifying it in the nets, he worked on opening the hip and preventing his front foot from going across the body at point of delivery. Post 2015, it was to alter his line of attack, give him greater revs and bring greater reward, particularly against right-handers outside Asia.
Ashwin gave notice, heft and range to Chennai tennis ball cricket’s sudoku — the carrom ball. An alternative to the off spinners’ doosra, with the knuckle and the bent middle finger flicking the ball out, turning from leg to off. His bowling candy box contained all sorts that he could pull out — the off break, the top spinner, the arm ball, the side spinner, the carrom ball, the skidder, and no doubt there’s something else being developed as we speak. He worked constantly on various components of bowling, the run-up, its angle, stride length, the pace of arm, position of wrist, speed variations, body position at the delivery crease, pivot follow through. Ravichandran Ashwin, PhD (Right Hand Off Break).
No matter where he was playing – for which team, in which match — Ashwin was always game. Was is an incorrect verb, because we will still see Ashwin play – no doubt in the IPL for CSK and maybe for his TNPL team, the Dindigul Dragons.
As a lower order batter, we forget Ashwin has six Test centuries for India, including four at No 8; three of those in India victories. He began his career as an opening bat, and so, while he can think like a batter, he was able to both plan and execute like a bowler. Hunted and hunter, to stretch a metaphor, in the same boots. There is no Indian cricket fan who will forget his walking-wounded partnership with Hanuma Vihari that saved the 2021 Sydney Test and kept India alive in the BGT series, which was won in Brisbane.
Which brings us back to the awkward questions that are largely not being asked today. WV Raman’s post on X said, “if I am every convinced about something, it is that intelligence is not always an advantage,” but questions remain. Why did Ashwin, cricketer, competitor and team man, give up the game halfway during a series? Rohit Sharma said he had heard a few things when he “came to Perth… this was on his (Ashwin’s) mind since then.” There’s then a BCCI circulated video clip, of Virat Kohli listening to Ashwin and then embracing him emotionally. Which was a really sweet visual, but it’s still confusing. Is Rohit saying Ashwin wanted to retire after the Perth Test, where Washington Sundar was picked over him? Is that what this is about? Ashwin played in the pink ball Test, and while India lost, he bowled far more economically than any of the other quicks, bar Bumrah. Then Jadeja played in Brisbane, where he batted far better than he bowled and has been doing for a while now.
The only thing that can be linked to Ashwin’s retirement is him not being sure of whether he has a chance to play in either Sydney or Melbourne. At the moment it’s one of two calls: either he’s been told he’s not going to play, and so has left. Or he’s not been told, but got the feeling, and so has left. Either way he’s pulled out halfway through a tour, and that is not a normal occurrence. Its only happened twice before in recent memory. In 1996 Navjot Singh Sidhu suddenly left the tour party in England for reasons not clearly explained to date. In 2014, MS Dhoni suddenly retired from Test cricket mid-way through a BGT series, leaving India without its captain and its No.1 wicket-keeper.
As of now, there is little conversation in the formal corridors of cricket about the timing of Ashwin’s retirement, barring the comment from Sunil Gavaskar who said, “In the middle, it is not usual – similarly when Dhoni retired… it leaves you one player short.” And with a little unease. No matter how polite the goodbyes may be and how measured the statements may emerge, what must the feeling be in the Indian dressing room?
Ashwin’s stature and achievements have given him the confidence to do this — a very civil act of disobedience against whoever is in charge of picking Indian XIs. Rohit has indicated where he stands over the Ashwin situation. The focus has now been turned on the one element of team selection while Rohit was away – the generic thing called “team management” which is basically coach Gautam Gambhir. Rohit was to say, “When I arrived in Perth… I somehow convinced him to stay for that pink ball Test.” Does this mean the captain and the coach are not on the same page about who should and should not play? When did Rohit lose control over who he can field on his eleven? The Aussies must be licking their chops.
Ashwin flies home to spend the holiday season with his family and loved ones, and may he be showered with happiness, contentment and joy. But what if it had been someone else who had done this? An Indian bowler of equal stature but without Ashwin’s articulation and conversational skills or his comfortable acceptance in cricket’s English-speaking world retiring midway through a tour? What if it was an Indian woman cricketer who left without taking questions or offering clarity on a sudden decision? What would we have been saying then? What descriptors would we be using for this unexpected retirement?
