Hello Friends,
We are about to end yet another year and as usual there is no ending to exciting sporting actions across the globe specially from the cricketing world. Even though Border-Gavaskar trophy was creating most of the buzz, there were some interesting series happening in the other parts of the world too specially for the teams who are contenders for a place in the World Test Championship (WTC) final. New Zealand ended up the year with a consolation win in the 3rd test against England which also happened to be the last international game for Time Southee. With the series loss they were out of contention for a WTC final berth. Biggest surprise though has been the way South Africa has leapfrogged others to seal their spot in the final for the test supremacy. Even though Sri Lanka are still left with a series against Australia, there chances of reaching the finals are now dependent on other teams' performances too.
Pakistan continued their improved performance in white ball cricket by defeating South Africa 3-0 in the ODI series after loosing the T20I series to the same opponent. Bangladesh stunned West Indies by thrashing them 3-0 in a T20I series. Indian women's team got back to winning ways by defeating West Indies women in the ODI series 3-0 after a disappointing white ball tour of Australia. On the Indian domestic circle Mumbai won yet another title in the form of Syed Mushtaq Ali trophy to continue their dominant year. In the franchise cricket world Australia hosted yet another season of Big Bash League (Men's BBL).
Earlier this month it was a proud moment for Indian chess fans when 18 year old D Gukesh won the world championship title. Yet another young prodigy who seems to be emerging as a long term success in the world of chess.
Coming back to Border-Gavaskar trophy as anticipated it's proving to be yet another hard fought series between two of the cricketing giants. Lot of exciting moments so far from both the teams but one moment that probably has created a bit of a dampening spirit for the series was sudden retirement of Indian legendary spinner Ravichandran Ashwin. Nobody expected such a great of the game to be leaving the international arena in that manner specially in the mid of a high octane series like this. This edition of Sports Talk Of The Month definitely features this legend.
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| Ravichandran Ashwin Image credit: vijay chennupati from sydney, australia, CC BY 2.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0>, via Wikimedia Commons |
Amidst regular discussions in the media on the topic of transition in Indian men's cricket team one of the prominent members of the seniors group Ravichandran Ashwin has finally declared his retirement from international cricket under surprising circumstances. A veteran bowler with 100+ tests & 500+ test wickets to his name calling it a day with immediate effect in the middle of a blockbuster test series down under is a rarity in Indian cricket. First question that hit the cricketing world including his fans & former cricketers was why he had to take such a drastic decision mid series? If it was pre decided then he could have waited till the end of the series. Was the matter discussed with the team management or selectors? Questions are plenty but there are hardly any concrete answers so far. Lot of speculations are doing rounds in the cricketing circle since his declaration but no confirmed information yet.
It's not that he would have continued for a long period if not retired now. Definitely he was reaching that point in his career which is considered to be the most challenging as one needs to decide whether to stop or to continue. He didn't have a fruitful series back home against New Zealand a couple of months back. He hasn't been a regular member in the playing XI for the ongoing series against Australia. Team is already working on the succession plan. All those factors might have worked behind his decision. Good news though is that he will continue to play in IPL where he will be part of Chennai Super Kings next season, the team which provided him an ideal platform to showcase his talent more than a decade back.
Ashwin's cricketing journey has been an interesting one. Started as a batter, then switched to a spinner & ended up as one of the all time best spinners in the history of cricket. Though he turned out to be a full time bowler his early days experience as a batter kept him in good shape to contribute with the bat as well till the end of his career. It is surprising that we only keep talking about his 100 tests or 500+ test wickets despite his tally of 3500+ runs with 6 hundreds in the oldest format of the game. Many a times Jadeja has been preferred over him in overseas conditions only because of his batting prowess which is difficult to understand. By every means Ashwin will be remembered as a proper test allrounder.
Even though he has never captained India his leadership skills were well recognized in the cricketing circle. He is known to be quite innovative in his approach as a leader. The same can be noticed in his bowling too. He has always been a guiding force for the young cricketers be it his teammates from national team, his state side Tamilnadu or IPL teams he represented over the years. He is someone who always thinks about different aspects of cricket and comes up with concepts or plans that are effective. At times he has been vocal against any of the cricketing rules too which he felt are not in place for the greater interest of the game.
While concluding this post we can definitely expect Ashwin the leader to be actively involved in shaping up the next generation of Indian cricket. If the younger lot can take a clue or two from his dedication, passion or love for the game they would certainly be heading towards cricketing glory. We also hope that whenever he bids a final goodbye to his playing career, he gets a well deserved farewell.
That's all for this year. Will be back next year with lot more sporting actions & interesting stories. Wishing you all an excellent new year in advance.
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