Ravichandran Ashwin: The Man who never believed in playing it safe

New Delhi: Ravichandran Ashwin sparred with his insecurities as a child for far too long and perhaps didn't want to be dragged into a rigmarole of insecurities once again.

It is for this reason that an abrupt retirement from international cricket would not seem out of the blue for anyone who has followed the man's journey. It could have happened in Sydney after the fifth Test against Australia but he didn't want to hang around.

No one had to tell him that it was time to walk away from the game that consumed nearly three decades of his 38-year-old existence. Ashwin, the straight-shooter, did a cameo presser to let the world know in John Denver style "My bags are packed and I am ready go".

He wore many hats as an active international cricketer and it would take just a five-minute conversation with him would be enough to know that he can see through word salad quite easily.

It is very difficult to stereotype Ashwin even after 14 years at the top level. The 765 international wickets are not a good enough data to decode the veteran, who admitted to being insecure as a kid in his book. He gradually won that battle with cricket playing a major role in shaping him into an assured person.

"I would rather fail in life than be absolutely safe. That's my character. I don't have the common insecurities that people have," Ashwin had recently told PTI when the first part of his autobiography "I Have The Streets" released a few months back.

"If you go to the Casino, thinking of how much money you will make, you will pretty much end up without a rupee. But when you go with the intention of having fun and wanting to lose the money that you have, you always go back a much richer person. It was actually a big learning experience," he had said.

So when he told his teammates about his decision, he didn't care whether his 106 Test matches could become 107 or for that matter 108. It didn't matter anymore.

If one has to analyse Ashwin the cricketer, it is very difficult to ignore Ashwin, the person, who had a very independent mind and a brain that probably ticked 24x7. He believed in de-construction of his art and became craftier one ball at a time.

He never believed that an off-spinner can only bowl doosra (the wrong 'un) with a legal action. But he developed his own wrong 'un, patented it as "carrom ball", which could be bowled with a flick of middle finger and thumb and beats the outside edge of a right hander.

The ball became Ashwin's calling card throughout his career but he had the guts to tell the world that he had learnt it by first watching Sri Lankan Ajantha Mendis during a junior camp in Chennai.

From 2011 till the series against England, he was lethal at home.

Critics can talk endlessly about the nature of Indian strips during the past 13 years but no one can deny Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja were a force of nature in those conditions.

One can be provided with advantageous conditions but the player also needs to know how to capitalise. The 383 wickets on Indian soil and 433 out of his 537 Test scalps in Asia is a testimony to his mastery of these conditions.

He has had some great spells in England and Australia but at times statistics conceal more than they reveal. No one can gauge how much pain he endured due to a lower abdominal injury during the 2018 Southampton Test against England which India lost.

Ashwin's biggest overseas Test achievement would certainly be batting for more than 40 overs with an equally hamstrung Hanuma Vihari as the two saved a Test match in Sydney in 2021. If 'Gabba' was India's Sholay, Sydney certainly was 'Ankur'.

That day, Ashwin played through the pain to save a game that felt like a victory.

He is a man of strong values. In his junior cricket days, it was his father Ravichandran, who, from the sidelines, asked him to run the non-striker out when he saw him gaining unfair ground. That started his tryst with with run outs at the non-strikers' end. He believed in rules and played by them.

'Spirit of Cricket' in garb of cheating was unacceptable to him.

He could stand for a colleague, like he did for Mohammed Siraj, who was hurled with choicest abuses in Australia.

But he always knew that cricket is a part of life not heart of life.

The engineer from Chennai's Ramkrishnapuram First Street never hesitated in leaving a COVID bio-bubble when family members fell sick quit a Test match when his mother Chithra survived a heart scare.

One former agent who worked with Ashwin during his earlier days had once said: "There are people who pitch ideas and deals. And there are people who close the deal. Ashwin is the second one," he had said.

He always had a plan B, be it buying a cricket team in the Tamil Nadu Cricket Association league or a squad in the Global Chess League.

His Tamil YouTube channel with 'Kutty Stories' and interviews has a huge Pan India following. His refreshing takes on cricket's myriad issues, players and laws are a huge hit with the fans.

"I had realised that I don't need an intermediary (media) to connect with people who might have a created perception about me," he had said once.

Ravichandran Ashwin, the cricketer will always be one of a kind. A sequel to 'I Have The Streets' would be as fascinating.