The omission of Ravichandran Ashwin from the World Test Championship (WTC) was a significant setback for his successful Test career. Despite having an impressive record of 474 Test wickets, placing him among the top 10 bowlers in the world, and being ranked as the No.1 ICC Test bowler, Ashwin was left out of the final match against Australia. India opted for an extra seamer and ultimately suffered a defeat by 209 runs. However, it was not this incident alone that made Ashwin question his future in cricket. Almost a year before that, he had already felt that his time as a professional cricketer was nearing its end. He even confided in his wife, Prithi Narayanan, about his thoughts.
Tweaking changes to action
In an interview with the Indian Express, conducted a week after the WTC final decision, Ashwin revealed the underlying reason behind his doubts. He disclosed that he had sustained a knee injury during the Test series against Bangladesh the previous year. After the tour, he confided in his wife, expressing that he believed the Border-Gavaskar series in February 2023 might mark the end of his career. He also expressed a desire to make some adjustments to his bowling action, as he felt that his previous technique had contributed to his injury.
“I’m very proud of what I’ve done in my life not just because of wickets or runs. But how consistently I have been to able to reinvent myself. One thing that really plagues cricketers or anybody as they grow old is insecurity. For me, it’s how cricketers get locked when they get older and when they get experienced; you want to hold on to something so tight, that you eventually end up breaking your own neck,” he said.
“When I came back from Bangladesh, I told my wife that the Australia series could become my last series. I used to have some knee issues. I told I am going to change my action because it really got a lot of momentum and with that when I was landing, my knee was buckling a little bit. I hadn’t done enough workload because of the T20 World Cup but I was not just not happy with the way the ball was coming, it was just scrambling a little bit here.”
Ashwin stellar career nearing an end?
The experienced spin bowler also disclosed that his knee had become swollen by the second Test match in Bangladesh. Despite initially dismissing the idea as "foolish and absurd," Ashwin contemplated the possibility of changing his bowling action. Following the tour, he visited the NCA, received an injection, and dedicated himself to refining his new action before the Australia series opener in Nagpur.
“By the second Test (in Bangladesh) it started to pain. It was really swelling up. So just thinking okay, how do I do this? Because I bowled really well for three-four years, right? To change my action, it’s got to be the most stupid and ridiculous thing to do. So I came back and said, listen, there’s a lot of load on the knee, it’s time to change and I’m going to go back to my action that used to bowl in 2013-14,” he added.
"So I went to Bangalore, I had to take an injection at that point in time, so, I changed my action. I started bowling and my knee pain went away. I practised for three-four days in Nagpur and I went into the Test match without having played a game with that action at all. On the first day of the Test, I didn’t even feel like a bowler for three to four overs but I was able to get on with it because of the awareness I have.
"And I am proud of the Player of the Series award. I think that is probably one of the best series I have had and the best bowling performance for me in a series in the last four-five years. I have done a lot of good stuff in the last five years, but still, it felt like that. Looking back, I feel so proud of having done that at 36. If I can change my action and put my career at stake, I don’t think there can be a greater challenge in life. A lot of people tend to get insecure. They don’t want to do something else and fail. It is very easy for me to play another four tests with the same action, maybe pick up 15, or 16 wickets, and not feel good about myself," he concluded.
