Aware of his waning match-winning abilities, Ashwin steps aside for his successors

Even as cricket fans in India were heaving a sigh of relief after their team managed to escape with a draw in the third Test of the ongoing series in Brisbane, came the news about Ravichandran Ashwin's retirement from international cricket.

Coming as it did, bang in the middle of a five-Test series, this announcement raised some eyebrows. But they were quickly shelved aside as the media rushed to sing praises about the outstanding career of this brilliant cricketer.

Except for the timing of the announcement, Ashwin’s retirement did not come as a shock. His wicket-taking and match-winning abilities have been progressively waning in recent years. His inability to spin India to a win in the recently concluded home series against New Zealand came as a big surprise.

Many were amazed that he could not pick wickets by the dozen, as was his wont during such series’ in the past. But even more shocking was that lesser-known spinners from both sides returned with richer pickings than India’s spearhead in this department. This was a clear message that the time had come for the national selectors and team management to look for other options to fill the role of an off-spinner who can also contribute with the bat in the lower order.

The emergence of Washington Sundar as an office capable of running through the batting order of opposing sides and his free-stroking ways with the willow ensured that a replacement was available to step into the breach.

Team management also indicated their preference for this player instead of the more experienced Ashwin when they sat down to pick up the playing eleven for the first Test in Perth. Ashwin played in the second Test, where he equipped himself creditably with the ball, though he could only get one wicket. He was dropped for the third one, where Ravindra Jadeja took the lone spinners’ slot.

It is a fact that Washington was amongst the runs, besides picking up a couple of wickets, in the opening test at Perth. Many felt that the team management was unfair when he was dropped for the second Test. Though Jadeja did not get any wickets at Brisbane, he struck a match-saving half-century, which was worth its weight in gold for the team.

Thus, performance-wise, Ashwin was at the bottom amongst the three of them after the first three Tests, where only one spin bowler was played. The side may take the field with more than one spinner at Melbourne and Sydney, where the pitches favour this type of bowling. In all probability, it must have been the realisation that he may not make it to the playing eleven even if two spin bowlers are played that prompted Ashwin to announce his retirement from international cricket.

It would be an understatement to say that Ashwin was a top performer for his side in all game formats. He burst into the side in the white ball format but quickly demonstrated his skills in the longer duration version and replaced Harbhajan Singh as the squad's frontline off-spinner.

With 537 wickets in Tests and another 228 scalps in limited overs cricket, he is India’s second-highest wicket-taking bowler in the international arena, after Anil Kumble. His tally of 765 wickets in international cricket places him at 11th overall.

The 11 Player of the Series awards and 10 player of the Match honours in Tests show how instrumental he was in determining the results of matches that he played. His versatility with the bat and ball gave him the status of “most Valued Player” in all formats during his salad days.

Ashwin started his career as an opening batsman for the junior side of Tamil Nadu, his home state. However, his ability as an off-spinner was detected during one of the national camps, and he was encouraged to focus more on this aspect.

However, he did not ignore his batting and became a useful lower-order batsman. His six centuries and an overall tally of 3,503 runs in Tests stand testimony to his prowess with the willow.

He is the only player, other than Shane Warne and Stuart Broad, to score more than 3,000 runs and pick up 500-plus wickets in Tests. However, there has been a general unwillingness to accord him the status of a genuine allrounder by the media and other observers of the game.

Ashwin’s forte as a bowler was his accuracy. He was certain that the ball would land at exactly the same spot where he wished it to touch the ground. Because of his tremendous confidence in his mastery over line and length, he brought in numerous variations in flight and turn, which confounded the batsmen.

Though tall, he could give the ball plenty of air and change the revolutions he imparted to it. In addition to the off-breaks, he was a master at bowling the carrom ball, which could spin to either side of the wicket depending on the position of the fingers on the ball.

He also possessed an armer that went through at great speed, besides occasionally sending down googlies and leg breaks. The only delivery he avoided bowling was the "doosra," since he felt that he was required to bend his elbow and wrist while sending it. Thus, Ashwin was a complete spin bowler, an absolute master of his craft, who could bamboozle batsmen with the sheer range and quality of the weapons available in his arsenal.

It has been fashionable to call Ashwin a “thinking cricketer” because of the innovations he brought into his art through his grey matter. Ashwin’s USP was his razor-sharp mind, which he used to good effect to unravel complications and solve problems.

His autobiography talks of an instance when, during his first national camp as a youngster, he felt like an outsider because of his inability to follow and speak Hindi, the language used by the remaining campmates. Most cricketers from South India would have cribbed about this difficulty and let it pass, but Ashwin was different.

He decided to learn Hindi and started attending private tuitions to master this language. This came in handy when he made it to the national squad in later years and ensured he did not feel left out during meetings and discussions. Only someone blessed with the ability to analyse a problem in-depth and understand its broader ramifications would have worked the way Ashwin did to solve this issue.

Would Ashwin have made a good captain for the national side? It may seem logical to think that a player with high-performance standards who successfully applied his considerable intellectual faculties to sharpen his cricketing skills will make an excellent captain. But Ashwin did not emerge with flying colours in the limited opportunities he got to lead his side in the domestic first-class circuit and IPL.

Here, too, it appears that factors beyond ability and intellect came into play to deny Ashwin's success as a skipper. Many times, it is also the case that captains blessed with superior skill sets and brain power create a sense of awe in fellow players, which may come in the way of forging a successful unit. The relative lack of success of Venkataraghavan, another off-spinner and owner of a brilliant mind, when he led the national side is a case in point.

Ashwin is unique in that he continued to connect with his friends in street cricket even after he became a star performer in IPL and a member of the national side. One cannot think of any other player who would enthusiastically return to playing cricket on the streets the day after he was dropped from the squad by an IPL franchisee.

Ashwin tells this tale in his autobiography, wherein he illustrated how an observation by a person who watched the street game helped him to understand the reasons for his failure in IPL! It is not for no reason that he titled his autobiography “I Have the Streets: a Kutti Cricket Story”, which is an eminently readable book.

Ashwin is the last in the line of the unique South India legacy of top-quality spin bowlers who were also engineering graduates. It is debatable whether they used their engineering skills to make buildings or make machines work, but it is undoubtedly the case that they used their formidable acumen to rise to the top as spin bowlers who won the respect of batters around the world.

While the other three—Erapalli Prasanna, Srinivas Venkataraghavan, and Anil Kumble—belonged to a time and generation when it was still possible to study in a professional college and also pursue a career in cricket, it is amazing how Ashwin managed to find time and energy to meet the demands of two extremely difficult careers in the present. This alone is testimony to the determination and focus of this spirited cricketer, which helped him transcend boundaries that most humans cannot even dream of conquering.

What next for Ashwin? He has indicated that he would continue his association with the game. His romance with the red cherry and the willow is so deep and strongly rooted that a separation, even a forced one, is impossible.

One can see him flitting from playing street cricket to taking part in the Tamil Nadu Premier League (TNPL) and India Premier League (IPL) while at the same time working with young cricketers to help them improve their skills. There is nothing that Ashwin cannot do in this game once he sets his heart to it.

Well played, Ashwin! Here is wishing him many more years of success and joy as he takes guard for his next innings.