Special homecoming: R Ashwin returns to Chennai home dressing room for first time after 2016

The play-offs and the final were supposed to take Chepauk on a nostalgic ride with its favourite hero MS Dhoni, but not all stories have a happy ending. But come Friday, the city’s favourite son of soil R Ashwin returns to Chepauk for Qualifier II for an emotional return.

“This place has given me so, so, so, so much that I always keep coming back to Chepauk. Tomorrow I might not be alive, but my soul will be hanging around this place. That is what this place means to me,” Ashwin recalled in a function before this IPL to felicitate his 100 Tests and 500 Test wickets. For the first time since leaving the CSK set-up in 2016, Ashwin would return to the home dressing room at Chepauk.

It was at this venue in 2008, just few months after the IPL launched that former India captain Kris Srikkanth opened the doors for Ashwin’s entry. While giving away man of the match award at the end of a TNCA First Division final, Srikkanth in his typically nonchalant way remarked, “Dai Ashwin, super ah pota da, Anirudh epome soluvan ne thaan best nu. CSK poi kalakanum, Muralitharan kita ela juice um uruvidanum. (Anirudh keeps saying you are the best. Do well in CSK and pick up all the tricks from Muralitharan).”

A match-winning spell for his team to move forward in the #TATAIPL 2024 Playoffs 👏

Ravichandran Ashwin bags the Player of the Match award 🏆

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Ashwin, though, stood expressionless as he was still waiting for an audition at CSK. “As I stood there, wondering I’m not even part of CSK, Cheeka just turned to Kasi Sir and asked, ‘you haven’t picked him yet?’ and that was that. The next day, I had a contract from Chennai Super Kings,” Ashwin said.

In the midst of greats, Ashwin was short on words then. But 16 years later, he is walking in as GOAT, still practicing an art that is showing signs of disappearing from the shortest format.

In a 10-team tournament, Ashwin is the lone frontline off-spinner making the XI on a regular basis. At a time where teams have relied on part time offspinners to deliver, Ashwin has not just been an exception, but also a reliable bowler for Rajasthan Royals with ball and at times even with the bat. In a league where spinners have become easy pickings for batsmen, Ashwin’s secret lies in his variations.

Unlike Tests, he doesn’t get spells to lay elaborate traps for the batsmen. He bowls one in the powerplay. The next three usually tend to be between overs 7 to 16, with the rare opportunity to bowl two on the trot. And he has also become all the more unpredictable with carrom balls, reverse-carrom ball, sliders and the occasional off-spinners being cleverly slipped in when the batsmen least expect them to.

Even with the off breaks, he does his trickery. Like Glenn Maxwell found out on Wednesday night. The Australian thought it was a juicy length ball and went for an alrighty heave off his first delivery, but it was delivered from the palms almost that considerably slowed up the pace, triggering a miscue.

An economical bowling display from R Ashwin 👌👌

Will it be a match-winning one 🤔

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For a spinner, who began his IPL career by being the most lethal in the powerplay, he has bowled only nine overs in the first six overs this season, thanks to Trent Boult’s presence. In those he has picked up just two wickets, but his economy rate of 7.77 stands out. In the middle-overs, he has taken six wickets with his economy largely remaining the same (7.81). And interestingly, despite being at his best against left-handers – due to match-ups – this season, he has dismissed more right-handers (5) than the southpaws (4).

This season, he has just picked nine wickets, but it has also been the most challenging for the spinners as a whole with the pitches being batter friendly at most venues. As he mentioned on his YouTube channel, Ashwin’s metrics of importance seem to have moved from wickets to dot-ball percentage and economy rate. One can see it as an excuse. But in a format where batsmen’s strike-rates outweigh the runs scored and average, there is scope for argument as well.

Cameron Green ✅
Glenn Maxwell ✅

Ravichandran Ashwin unveiling his magic at a crucial stage ✨

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When Ashwin walks out at Chepauk on Friday – his first play-off fixture since the 2012 final – he would be on a nostalgic ride. This is definitely not a swansong, but for Ashwin it would once again be an audition to wear the famous yellow jersey in the November of his career.

“Sometime during that 2008 season as Dhoni was walking back, N Srinivasan Sir jumped out of nowhere and said, ‘MS, MS…there is a boy called Ashwin, he bowls off-spin and he is very good for Tamil Nadu. I think you should have a look at him’. Dhoni said ‘yes’ and that was it. I’m indebted to Dhoni for the rest of my life. He gave me the new ball to go head on against Chris Gayle.” He took down Gayle off the fourth ball. “And I never looked back.”

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