Ravichandran Ashwin Serves a Reminder of His Class in the Face of Change

Ravichandran Ashwin has been India’s enforcer in many ways. Over his career, he has picked up the opening wicket on countless occasions both at home and overseas. His beauties to Alastair Cook serve as an instant reminder about his early impact while the Caribbean islands too are no stranger to his craft as he often serves the early breakthrough..

The last time Ravichandran Ashwin played in the West Indies was in 2016 when he finished as the man of the series with strong performances while batting and bowling. Ashwin though did not play a Test in the Caribbean for the next seven years. When India visited in 2019, they started their style of selecting Ashwin based on conditions and opted for only Jadeja.

On his return to the Indian Team after missing the WTC Final, and after finally getting a Test in the West Indies, Ravichandran Ashwin was in the thick of things. He was quick to show that nothing had changed. As he did in 2016, Ravichandran Ashwin produced a beauty to open the innings turning the ball past Tagenrine Chanderpaul to get his off-stump. He produced something identical against Darren Bravo back in 2016, and showed that he is still the same bowler.

The guile still remains and it has been evident this year as well especially when Ashwin managed a six for on a lifeless Ahmedabad track against Australia. Between Ahmedabad and Dominca though a lot went on with Ashwin’s Test career despite India only playing one Test.

Ashwin, India’s leading wicket-taker in the WTC cycle was left out of the Final and was watching India crumble from the sidelines. As a result of that omission, Ravichandran Ashwin had been left out of India’s last six Tests in England. His record there isn’t bad, but the fact that his career coincided with Ravindra Jadeja allowed India to go through one of their best and toughest phases with spin bowling.

With Jadeja’s superior batting ability and the skill to hold an end with accurate spin bowling, India have found it tough to field both, with their last appearance together in England coming in the WTC Final in 2021, where incidentally Ravichandran Ashwin was India’s best bowler. New Zealand though with a deeper bowling attack triumphed leaving India to abandon their policy of playing their best two spinners together overseas.

Coming back with Jadeja overseas, Ashwin was at it. Each of his deliveries made the batter think, and Ashwin got the ball talking well. With a lot of inexperience in the West Indies batting line-up, Ashwin looked all the more threatening and marched to a 12-wicket haul in the game. He crossed Shane Warne’s tally for most five-fors.

While Ashwin was plying his trade, there was Jadeja too, still silently chipping away. He is far behind Ashwin on five-fors with 12 to his name but the scenario in the previous Test was perfect to summarize their careers. With similar averages., Jadeja, bowling fewer overs than Ashwin exerted just as much pressure and took three wickets as well on the opening day, matching Ashwin with the ball, and falling short by a couple of wickets.