Ravichandran Ashwin, the artist whose art knows no boundaries

Ravichandran Ashwin has always been a competitor. 

He always loved to challenge the norm. It was in his blood. He would never accept a no without reasoning, and that’s perhaps even the right way to look at life. 

As a young kid growing up in West Mambalam, a typical Tamil Brahmin area, Ravichandran Ashwin wasn’t just a cricketer. He was an inspiration, a cricket scientist and moreover, someone with whom we have shared a lot of tennis-ball memories. 

Not many people can claim this memory, but the fact that we played tennis ball cricket with Ashwin at a relatively young age showed humility was always his biggest virtue. Even then, it was clear that Ashwin didn’t like to lose; he played street cricket passionately. 

Again, not many people know this, but that’s why many people in Tamil Nadu, especially Chennai and West Mambalam, are so well aware of the carrom ball. We have seen it from very close quarters; we have all seen Ashwin try out the different variations in the streets and succeed on almost every occasion. 

It is stored in the core memory, and we all have grown from watching Ashwin acing the streets of West Mambalam to almost capturing the entire country's imagination, becoming a benchmark for the budding spinners. 

Even after he swapped the streets for the grounds, one thing that hasn't ever stopped is his constant endeavour to improve. 

Ashwin never stops. Ashwin never quits. Ashwin never takes a break (from learning). 

Being the cricket nut he is, the 37-year-old always finds that area for self-improvement. It could be how he loads up in his action, releases the ball, or grips it. There’s so much thought that’s constantly going on in his head. 

If it isn’t about his actions or his variations, the inner engineer in him takes over. What if you could use the crease slightly wider, what if you could come in closer to the umpire and deliver it within? Or what if you just don’t reach the crease and deliver the ball from behind? 

Image Courtesy: Sai Krishna | (L-R: Off-spinner, Under-cutter and Carrom ball)

At this point, you probably are just calling me an idiot for visualising things. But perhaps you don’t realise that Ashwin has done all of the above things in his career, including the part where he has delivered the ball from behind, far away from the bowling crease. 

He has bowled the carrom, that delivery which goes in with the angle, the one that sharply turns, and the others which seemingly makes a batter believe that it will turn. That’s what makes Ashwin extremely special. He’s quite a cricket nut. 

And, he has never kept it hidden as well. In one of the press conferences, Ashwin said he had to try something out with the crease, which helped him pick up a five-wicket haul against England at home. There’s never this content when Ashwin is going about his business; he just wants to get better and better. 

In case you were wondering, Ashwin has the off-break, straight delivery, carrom, arm ball, yorker, leg break, top spin, googly, doosra, flipper, and a seam up. That’s deliveries from yesterday, today and tomorrow. 

Ashwin’s success at home is paramount; he has 354 wickets in India, the most for any bowler, surpassing the great Anil Kumble, who had 350 scalps. He has 404 wickets in Asia and is only 15 behind Kumble on that chart, with Muttiah Muralitharan still 208 wickets away. 

Everyone knows the numbers. 

But not everyone knows Ashwin, the leader. Ashwin has never donned the title of a leader on paper in the Indian setup. But it is an open secret that he is up there as perhaps one of the most astute minds in Indian cricket’s rich history. There’s this one moment, though, that caught my attention. 

When Rishabh Pant was struggling as a wicketkeeper, there were chants of “Dhoni, Dhoni, Dhoni” everywhere. Journalists at different publications were no different, either. It is what sold for them. But that’s where Ashwin’s leadership trait perhaps shone through all the comparisons and the hatred. 

“In terms of Rishabh Pant’s keeping, the name of the game is confidence. He has been batting well, he has been working incredibly hard on his keeping. Sometimes, when you are constantly compared with someone, it can be really hard,” Ashwin had to say this in a presser after the Chennai Test. 

“I really do feel for Rishabh, especially when he is playing the white-ball format, he was constantly compared with the great MS Dhoni. Now too, he is being compared with Saha and so on, sometimes it is better to give him a break. He definitely has the ability and will go on from strength to strength, which I have no doubts about.”

Since then, the tide has changed. Everyone is now properly seatbelted on this rollercoaster ride called Rishabh Pant. But none came out supporting Pant in the manner that Ashwin did. 

Sometimes, you don’t need a title to be a leader, and Ashwin is a fitting example. 

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He’s one of the greatest spinners of this generation if not the greatest, and despite that, people queue up to teach him off-spin. 

There’s always this asterisk that surrounds Ashwin. He has played 99 Tests; he has over 500 Test wickets, yet somehow, a group of people still vehemently oppose that he could end up as India’s greatest spinner. 

There’s still that thought that Ashwin, the overseas bowler, has never turned up for India. 

Across India’s cricketing history, only three spinners have picked up more wickets than Ashwin in non-Asian conditions - Anil Kumble, Bishan Bedi and Harbhajan Singh. 

Ashwin’s average (33.1) is only the second-best among spinners with 100 wickets, and Ashwin has played at least four fewer innings than all of them. Since 2018, Ashwin has picked up 62 wickets in those conditions, averaging 26.8, and even has the best economy. Yet. 

There’s still a group that is sour over the fact that Ashwin has bagged many wickets in the DRS era. There are people still who believe that Ashwin is nothing but an overrated off-spinner. 

Throughout his cricketing career, Ashwin has fought a lot of things: some gritty batters, some nerdy off-setters, some domineering spinners, and some crafty wigglesmen. But the biggest battle he has fought in his entire cricketing life is to prove to the world to take him more seriously. 

At this point, it seems like a never-ending battle. There still isn’t as much celebration that someone people have doubted over the years is making his 100 Test appearance. Someone who they felt was nothing more than a decent off-spinner has over FIVE HUNDRED TEST WICKETS!! 

And despite all of his bowling credentials, he isn’t even regarded as one of the greatest to have played the game. All of this will change, maybe, once he hangs up his boots. Maybe a decade later, maybe when India struggles to produce a quality replacement. Maybe when the doubters finally put their tinted glasses away. 

Maybe when the whole country learns that Ashwin is just one of their own, he is a lunatic engrossed in cricket, just like us. 

It is only fitting that India’s greatest-ever match-winner, Ravichandran Ashwin, a nomadic scientist, is playing his 100th Test in Dharamshala, a pilgrimage. 

When science meets divine intervention.