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Back to Ashwin’s constant search for excellence
Enjoying his game after WTC final snub, taking a fifer, becoming third Indian to take 700 wickets, dismissing father-son duo—it’s all in a day’s work for Ashwin
The world knows Ravichandran Ashwin has deserved better than to be restrained by talk of matchups, team balance and lazy stereotyping when ideally he should be bowling long, probing spells from one end, befuddling batters with his guile and slick artistry.
But life is what happens when you are busy making other plans. Only, Ashwin is so meticulously pragmatic, he doesn’t forget planning for worst case scenarios too. The World Test Championship final was one such game.
“It’s very difficult as a cricketer when you have a shot at the WTC final and you are sitting out,” said Ashwin on Wednesday, after the close of play on the first day of the first Test in Roseau, Dominica. “But what is the difference between me and another youngster if I also end up sulking inside the dressing room? I was physically and mentally prepared for the WTC final but I was also prepared to not play the game. If I’m not playing, how do I respond? How do I make sure the dressing room is really up and about? Because winning the WTC final is the most important thing. It could be a high point in my career and I could have played a good role in it. It’s just unfortunate it didn’t pan out.”
Cut to the West Indies, on a slow but bouncy pitch at Roseau, and it’s Ashwin business as usual. Another five-wicket haul, third Indian cricketer to take 700 international wickets after Anil Kumble and Harbhajan Singh, with an added nugget of becoming only the fifth bowler in history to dismiss a father-son duo in Test cricket, and you start wondering what would possess India’s think tank to even consider dropping such a matchwinner like him. Ashwin is thankful for the reality checks though.
“There is no human being who hasn’t gone through the highs without the lows,” he said at the end of the day’s play with India putting on 80 runs for the opening stand after West Indies had been dismissed for 150, a head start largely engineered by Ashwin’s 5/60.
“When you have lows, it gives you two chances—either you sulk and complain and go down, or you learn from it. I am someone who has constantly learnt from his lows. In fact, the best thing that will happen after the good day I have had is that I will have a good meal, a good conversation with my family and go to bed and forget about it. Because when you have had a good day, you know you had a good day. There are areas you can work on and get better for tomorrow. So this constant search for excellence has held me in good stead all the time. But it’s also been incredibly draining.”
Even at home, Ashwin usually has to wait till at least the second hour of the day to work on the ball. But so favourable were the conditions in Dominica that Rohit Sharma tossed the ball at Ashwin after only eight overs. The pitch was undoubtedly tacky, with uneven patches of dead grass barely covering the red soil top layer.
“There was a bit of extra bounce, especially from the pavilion end,” added Ashwin. “The slope of the pitch too was such that I was getting bounce. The turn was big but it was also slow.” Ashwin got to work straightaway.
West Indies captain Kraigg Braithwaite showed a bit of aggression in the first over when he slogged a fuller ball from Ashwin over mid-wicket for a boundary but barring that the batters were mostly pressed on their backfoot. In no time did Tagenarine Chanderpaul, almost a spitting image of his father Shivnarine’s famous open stance, crumble under pressure. Ashwin set it up perfectly, teasing Chanderpaul with tossed up deliveries on and outside off till he couldn’t resist the temptation to have a go at him, only for the ball to drift in and hold its line to beat his outer edge.
A bigger blow was dealt in four overs when Brathwaite ended up slicing Ashwin to Sharma at midwicket. Once the openers were sent back, West Indies already looked in trouble.
Jermaine Blackwood was shaping up well but Mohammed Siraj cut short that innings by running in from mid-off and holding on to a screamer off Ravindra Jadeja’s bowling to reduce West Indies 68/4 at lunch. That, Ashwin felt, “shifted the momentum” in India’s favour.
Alick Athanaze was the only batter who tried to play Ashwin’s bowling on merit, trying to read him early and using his footwork to cover the turn. With time though, Ashwin was getting more turn on the ball—4.7 degrees after lunch compared to 3.7 before it—prompting Athanaze to play more across the wicket, even getting a six in the process. Another attempt at it however resulted in Athanaze’s dismissal as he holed out to Shardul Thakur at mird-on, giving Ashwin his 701st international wicket. For context, this is Ashwin’s 271st game. Harbhajan got 707 wickets in 365 matches, Kumble 953 wickets in 401 games.
Throughout the morning, Ashwin served us a reminder of his ability to probe, attack, set up traps and consolidate at will. And he can easily do this for a long time. But it’s more a question of whether Ashwin will get to play than if he wants to continue playing.
He will definitely feature in the next Test in Port of Spain but given how the management has reacted in overseas Tests, Ashwin is not a surety in South Africa later this year. And he probably knows that as well. So he is focusing on what he can control the best–his present.
“There is so much cricket nowadays that it becomes very important we stay in the present. I was sad with what happened at the WTC final. We lost twice now in the finals. With the new cycle beginning, it was very important for me to start the series on a good note,” he said.
“I started in 2011 as a Test cricketer, in 2010 as a one-day cricketer. Looking back at my career I wonder how quickly time flew. Rahul (Dravid) bhai always says it’s not the runs or wickets you will remember, you will forget about all of them. It’s only the great memories that you will create with the team that will stick with you. I’m totally behind that. I don’t know if he has brainwashed me to do that.
“From my point of view, I definitely think the journey so far has been so quick that I have not been able to recollect what has happened and how it’s gone through. But I have a lot of gratitude for what the game has given me. I don’t know how many more such moments await me. But I will enjoy each and every one of them. After Covid, I promised myself that I have to enjoy my cricket. Whether I’m dropped or playing, retiring or anything else, I have to enjoy.”
