Ashwin | A star of many triumphs

R. Ashwin, a cricketing genius with 537 wickets, retires on his own terms, leaving a lasting legacy in the sport.

Spinning a web around perplexed batters, talking about cricket and doing YouTube videos on a variety of subjects, all come naturally to R. Ashwin. He can be many things at once but if there was one attribute that consumed him intensely, it was his passion for the willow game.

To see Ashwin at nets, before a game or during a match, is to observe someone immersed completely in sport. On Wednesday (December 18, 2024) here at the Gabba, Ashwin was exchanging notes with Nathan Lyon. And when the third Test concluded and a rainy evening prevailed, Ashwin walked away with a slew of individual records while being the star of many Indian triumphs over a storied career.

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This was a retirement as sudden as the one that M.S. Dhoni sprung upon an unsuspecting media at Melbourne back in 2014. The former Indian captain’s Test exit emerged through a BCCI press-release, thankfully Ashwin addressed the cricket writers.

To possess 537 wickets, currently seventh in the all-time list, 37 five-wicket hauls, and 3503 runs with six hundreds, mark Ashwin as a great in Tests. It is a format he embraced well even if his initial foray into the spotlight were through his spells in the Indian Premier League (IPL). In ODIs, Ashwin bagged 156 wickets and made a belated comeback too, such was his zeal to compete.

In his formative years, the Tamil Nadu off-spinner had to deal with inevitable comparisons. It is a hard corner that all Indian members of the slow-art have to contend with. Be it the famous spin-quartet or his immediate predecessors – Anil Kumble and Harbhajan Singh, Ashwin was dealing with multiple shadows and massive boots.

He bided his time, performed consistently, had a clean action, was never averse to speaking his mind and more importantly kept learning. On home surfaces, he was an indispensable champion and a large reason for India being deemed a fortress in its backyard over the last decade and a half. Twice when his performance marginally dipped, be it against England in 2012 or New Zealand this year, India lost.