The Art of Ashwin

A phenomenal international cricket career has come to an end with R Ashwinrsquos announcement of his retirement from the game at that level Why has he done that in the middle of an ongoing series From someone who has never backed away from a challenge this has indeed been a surprising decision with the current Test series still evenly poised and the World Test Championship not yet a lost cause for India Did he know that he would not be part of Indiarsquos plan for the fourth and fifth Tests Or as Sunil Gavaskar wondered aloud has the experience of being so frequently benched despite being the worldrsquos leading spinner begun to rankleI believe the horsesforcourses theory is sometimes overrated No matter what the playing conditions India fielded three of the four spinners that made up the famed quartet in match after match series after series at home and away right up to the end of the 1970s By the same tokenAshwin should have walked into the playing XI every time India played a Test match Former India captain MAK Pataudi once said that offspinner S Venkataraghavan would have been a permanent fixture in the Indian XI as an allrounder even with rival EAS Prasanna walking in ahead of him into the side if only Venkat had focused more on his batting With six Test hundredsmdashincluding matchwinning or matchsaving knocksmdashunder his belt Ashwin did not have to prove his allrounder status to anyone Unfortunately for him Ravindra Jadeja proved better than him in at least one departmentmdashthat of his spectacular fieldingmdashand that made him the favourite for the sole spinner slot in overseas Test matches I believe however that in at least half of the matches India went in with four seamers the side would have been better served with both Ashwin and Jadeja in the playing XI at the expense of one of the pacersI have often confessed that it was not love at first sight between me and Ashwinrsquos bowling This is hardly the time to go into my initial notsopositive reaction to the stylistics of his craft Suffice it to say that I am today like many leading commentators and countless fans of his cricket an unabashed admirer I shall only say this much in this context Ashwin has been a fearless experimenter all through his career but I suspect that the gradual streamlining of his bowling action has also meant greater preoccupation with consistency at the cost of variety with a parallel enhancement in the extent of his overseas successes when not benched Who else among international bowlers has exhibited the steel to ignore carping criticism the way Ashwin has through his career calmly working all along on improving his record away from IndiaI cannot think of a worldclass batsman that has mastered Ashwin Here I may be straddling redball and Twenty20 cricket Steve Smith Marnus Labuschagne David Warner Travis Head Ben Stokes Chris Gaylehellipthey have all struggled against his wiles In his approach to Ashwin even Root has not been quite as confident as he is generally known to be And when was the last time Gayle dominated Ashwin Did he ever As for lesser mortals like Bairstow or Head they can look silly right in the middle of a purple patch when foxed by Ashwinrsquos bag of tricks real or imaginedAshwin recently stated that he has learnt to compartmentalise his batting and his bowling As I understand him while he likes to visualise a scenario of successive deliveries often based on his mental database of the batsmanrsquos strengths and weaknesses he has gained greatly by focusing on one ball at a time while batting This reminded me of my own likening in a podcast of the way Ashwin seems to think through his bowling to a chess playerrsquos moves Prasanna was a master of anticipating a batsmanrsquos responses to his bowling wares and trapping him through subtle deceit Bishan Singh Bedi teased the batsman into error tempting him with one kind of delivery and surprising him afterwards with a wickedly different offering BS Chandrasekhar was magic pure and simple Venkatrsquos precise probing ways were compared to a surgeon wielding his scalpel But Ashwin is perhaps more calculatingly intelligent in his approach than all these greatsAshwin is 38 but he looks fit and fresh enough to continue breaking records as a leading allrounder in top flight cricket over the next couple of years One of the most cerebral cricketers around he would have probably made a successful India captain had he been offered the mantle Active in social media he demonstrates exceptional people skills while interacting with teammates and colleagues Be all that as it may this is an emotionsurcharged moment for followers of Indian even world cricket We say goodbye with a heavy heart to one of the greats of all time to have adorned international cricketChennaibased V Ramnarayan bowled offspin for Hyderabad His 768 against Bombay in the 197576 Ranji Trophy quarterfinal went in vainClayton Murzellorsquos Pavilion End column will be back next weekThe views expressed in this column are the individualrsquos and donrsquot represent those of the paper