When India introduced the jersey for the Men’s T20 World Cup, Ashwin posted a picture saying, “When your daughter says, ‘I have never seen you in this jersey appa’ can’t leave her out of the picture. Can you?”
This post and the caption was not only emotional but also would tell how many days he had to wait to get back in the white-ball international cricket. For more than 1000 days, Ashwin watched men take his place in the Indian team. He watched KulCha and then a couple of his state-mates, Washington Sundar and the latest Varun Chakravarthy. There were a few other youngsters too.
If one is made to wait for years, they would eventually lose the plot and would retire but Ashwin is different. Every time he has a failure, he would go back to learn something new. He lived in between reinvention and the return. He saw every single day as the day closer to regain his spot once again. Every time he took the field, he came up with a special delivery. Most of the days, he showed up and then showed the world why they shouldn’t forget him.
He lives in his tiny bubble where he plays by the rule and does what he feels is right. There are hard workers, and then there is Ashwin. Even after making it to the squad, he had to wait for a couple of games to bowl his first delivery in years.
The day came. The moment came. When Kohli threw the ball to Ashwin, Afghanistan was under pressure. His over could’ve gone either way. Tricky.
He bowled a slower one, followed by a quicker one at leg stump. He moved around the wicket to leave it short, outside off, the next one came in while the other was in good length. Six deliveries were done in a whisker.
A short delivery followed by a good one at the leg stump. The third one was the carrom ball which gave him the first wicket of the day. A usual toss-up delivery to Nabi and then moves around the wicket for Zadran. A couple of sliders as Zadran tries to sweep and misses. Ashwin notes the same.
He comes back to the bowl to Zadran. The next over, here, he comes up with an arm-ball. Zadran, who is already on the move, tries to reverse sweep, missing it completely. Ashwin gets his second.
As he returned to the final over, it looked like the Afghanistan batters were trying to play him out rather than going for the big shot. Mission accomplished for Ashwin as he went back with 2 for 14.
On an important game, his first since 2017, he not only bowled beautifully but also made sure to take a couple of wickets. He could have done that in the earlier games too, we never know, and we never will. Either way, it was an important game for India, and Ashwin showed up, showed the world why he shouldn’t be ignored.
All those sleepless nights, the pain of patience, the reinvention worked out well for the man. We never know how far he can go now, but one thing is for sure, He will never give up, will keep breaking those doors and keep showing up.
