Ravichandran Ashwin Habit and the Old Comfort of Consistency
Perhaps the most remarkable thing about Ravichandran Ashwin was that after standing with the match ball in his hand – for the 37th time if you’ve lost count – by 10 a.m., it felt inevitable. Ashwin began bowling after 10:30 a.m.
Many great cricketers feel that scoring a century or taking five wickets is inevitable while they’re playing. Batsmen have confident shots that, when played early, send a coded message of impending dominance. Bowlers can express this in their first few overs.
Ravichandran Ashwin sometimes feels this even before starting his spell. Over the last 13 years, many press boxes across India have pre-written schedules, knowing he would bowl in the fourth innings. Like on the fourth morning of the Chennai Test, the pitch was turning consistently, avoiding footmarks.
Ravichandran Ashwin wasn’t called to bowl until after the drinks break in the first session. Yet, he was hard to miss on the field. As a strong partnership built between captain Najmul Hossain Shanto and veteran Shakib Al Hasan, he was either suggesting things to Rohit Sharma or going over to Ravindra Jadeja, running around enthusiastically setting up field positions between overs, even though neither of them was actually bowling at the time.
In the first hour, it felt like the game was just a teaser before Ashwin’s arrival. And when he did, it took him just four balls and some clever placement of the short-leg fielder behind the left-handed batsman’s eyes to tighten the grip on Bangladesh in the first Test. He did it in such a way that you’ve probably seen it so many times you could imagine the dismissal in your mind.
Shakib Al Hasan pushed forward defensively, but the drop on the ball meant he hadn’t quite moved forward enough to counter the bounce. The ball caught the inside edge of his bat, hit the pad, and went straight to the fielder. The previous afternoon, another left-hander, Mominul Haque, also failed to defend Ashwin’s ball on the front foot. On that occasion, a similarly slow ball angled towards the left-hander, who played inside the line, sending the ball past his defense and onto the stumps.
This is all a roundabout way of suggesting that in a game where every data point is logged, every move is recorded, and every action is endlessly debated, some things remain beyond full comprehension. Everyone has seen what Ashwin has done over the past 13 years. Virtually no one knows how to deal with it.
For India, there’s now a comfortable familiarity with these rituals, a muscle memory in high-fiving hands. At the start of a 10-Test season, as they look for another World Test Championship (WTC) final, while different parts of their Test setup remain in flux, they can still savor the old habits of Ashwin, which are a priceless luxury for them.
That doesn’t mean it’s easy for Ashwin. Test match exertion takes a lot out of a cricketer, and Ashwin, now 38 and facing questions about the final stage of his career, can’t just travel from Chennai to Kanpur and then back to Bengaluru expecting to always perform brilliantly.
In Chennai, he said, “It’s a long season. But sometimes when you look too far ahead, it can get quite overwhelming. You’re playing cricket for 3-4 months, and you’re playing 10 Test matches. That’s a lot of Test matches. So, sometimes you can’t think like that. You have to pile it up. I’ve worked a little bit on that. I know I need to keep some reserves. So, I’ve tried to build that up. We’ll have to see. There are good breaks between games. Hopefully, I’ll get small windows to fix things. More than the skill, I think it’s about being physically capable and flexible so I can complete this season, which is the most important thing for me right now.”
After all, cricket, like the outside world, will always remain in a state of chaotic and unprecedented flux. Every passing week will bring new changes, new shocks, and new excitement. Things will change, and teams will need new visions and personnel. But on days like these, you realize why some old habits still maintain an irresistible charm.