It has been an odd season for Ravichandran Ashwin who will play his sixth match of the Indian Premier League 2022 today. He has just one entry in the wicket column and it is not in line with his phenomenal wicket-taking benchmark that he has set in red-ball cricket. However, the Rajasthan Royals bowler can take some solace from the fact that he is one of the most economical bowlers in this tournament and has played some crucial role in his team’s smooth run so far. And yet, from the last one or two weeks, Ashwin is in the news more not for his cricketing skills but for his cricketing ideas.
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While it is easy to mock his historic ‘retire out’ move as a move from gully cricket to international cricket, there is a feeling of almost unanimity among cricketers that if anyone can dare to take the lead in the T20 format, Ashwin was the inevitable choice. Maybe with this one gesture, Ashwin has managed to sabotage the new rule. “He just seems to be that guy. He was happy to push the Mankad regime to the limit. Now, that has been changed and now he is the first to retire. RR always tries to question the status quo in a way. That night, he certainly did, and Ashwin put his hand up,” former Australian all-rounder Shane Watson recently said on The Grade Cricketer podcast. Former India all-rounder Irfan Pathan also lauded Ashwin for his move. Said that it was not entirely surprising that the step of ‘retire out’ was first taken by his former teammate.
Those who have watched Ashwin’s cricket closely are probably now familiar with a distinctive feature of his personality. That he is different in many ways. A rare species especially in Indian cricket where grassroots analogy is so prevalent in international cricket. However, it is not only in the cricket field that Ashwin is the one who has challenged established norms and is quite unconventional – from trying countless variations all the time, sometimes even trying his hand at leg-spin – And his general approach towards cricket is different from any regular cricketer.
Earlier, it was the same Ashwin who successfully managed to remove the stigma of running out non-strikers despite facing heavy criticism in the name of ‘spirit of cricket’. In the past, Ashwin has proved with his actions that he doesn’t care much for the Anglo-Australian evaluation system, despite his massive dominance in the cricketing world. In that sense, he has always been a strange or brave man (depending on your perception) in Indian cricket, ready to take an unusual stand on the game’s many gray areas. And, his fearless attitude is not just limited to the field but goes beyond cricket as well. How many cricketers can publicly stand against certain Supreme Court decisions or sometimes not take a politically correct stand on their social media platforms.
A lot of critics have also pointed out that Ashwin can afford to do something like retired out in the IPL as he is not considered a dangerous batsman. But isn’t this assessment unfair to someone who has five Test centuries? The move has been in the news for cricket ever since Yuvraj Singh struggled badly while batting against Sri Lanka in the 2014 T20 World Cup final in Bangladesh. To see such radical ideas in practice, Ashwin’s courageous witchcraft is needed, which is already well-thought-out.
Ashwin’s out-of-the-box thinking is not something that has been readily accepted by various captains and coaches throughout his time. Forget being encouraged or rewarded for your innovative ways. Rather, his opinion in the Indian dressing room is considered too outspoken or sometimes to the extent of disrespecting the officials (read the captains). And it is no surprise as the culture of ‘Yes Boss’ permeates every sphere of Indian life. Not only Virat Kohli, who had objections to Ashwin’s ‘revolutionary ideas’ in the dressing room, but his predecessor MS Dhoni was also at times not impressed with the ‘overly analytical mindset’ of his match-winning spinner. The fact that Chennai Super Kings chose not to retain Ashwin after almost a decade of affiliation and even ignoring his local Chennai connect and leadership potential, has something to do with Ashwin’s own way of doing things. Could be related.
With over 550 international wickets, Ashwin is a modern stalwart of Indian cricket, but his true assessment as a cricketer must also take into account the fact that he is also an outsider and this is an outstanding quality in Indian cricket. Where tradition is heavily emphasized. and rote learning methods. This is why Ashwin continues to challenge the forces – whether his unorthodox methods should be appreciated and accepted as few would have thought that the non-striker’s run-out method or retired-out would become commonplace in cricket terminology. .
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