Ashwin and missing ode to our bowlers

The saddest thing about Ashwin’s retirement is that he was not on anyone’s immediate retirement radar. A bowler who had so much to offer and plenty of cricket left in him has decided to retire. The 12-year streak of success was built on the backs of Jadeja and Ashwin. Time and again, they dug in at the crease, and their scores of 20s, 30s, and 40s saved India from embarrassment on countless occasions. If scoring a 50 or 100 is the benchmark for batsmen, then a 3-fer or 5-fer is its equivalent for bowlers. By that standard, Ashwin and Jadeja have fulfilled their roles far more consistently and significantly than our batsmen. Yet, our expectations from them never diminish, while we readily excuse and tolerate poor form from our batsmen. India, a country obsessed with worshipping batsmen, has rarely acknowledged the contributions of its bowlers. Barring the “Jasprit phenomenon” (and I still consider him an exception), we’ve never truly celebrated our bowlers’ achievements. Very few remember the final matches of legends like Srinath and Venkatesh. Players like RP Singh, Nehra, Munaf Patel, Agarkar, and Irfan Pathan didn’t get a farewell even remotely close to the farewell treatment Sachin received. Ironically, some of them didn’t even know they were playing their last match for India, despite being critical to Indian cricket’s success during different phases. In India, we can wait six years for a batsman to regain form or give them 50 Test matches to prove their worth. But we don’t show the same patience with bowlers. A batsman can have a two-year injury break and return smoothly, but a bowler injured for three or four months is often replaced and rarely given a second chance, even if they’ve only had a couple of bad series. Take Bhuvneshwar Kumar, for example—he’s still better than Siraj and Harshit, yet he won’t be back because he’s “not young” anymore. Meanwhile, we don’t question the age of some of our batting legends who have delivered flop performance after flop performance, for years now. Our biggest advantage in home conditions has always been the ability of our spinners to consistently dismiss batsmen. With Ashwin gone and Jadeja in the twilight of his career, we will inevitably lose this edge. Frankly, we will find another Kohli or Rohit, but replacing Ashwin and Jadeja will leave a much larger void. As a country, we have failed to honor our bowlers, who have carried our hopes and dreams just as much as our batsmen have.