As his former teammates were still on their way from Brisbane to Melbourne on Thursday afternoon, R Ashwin landed to a hero’s welcome in Chennai on his first day as a retired India cricketer. The seismic aftershocks of his sudden and surprise retirement announcement are still being felt, its timing and import being discussed and debated and dissected in several quarters. Ashwin made it clear, again, in his hometown that he was far from done as a cricketer, that while he would no longer don the India jersey, he was very much looking forward to his second innings in the IPL with Chennai Super Kings, with whom he started his franchise journey more than a decade and a half ago.

An irreplaceable player

A player of Ashwin’s quality is irreplaceable. His wickets, his runs, his experience, his wisdom — they haven’t come about suddenly or by accident. India haven’t just lost someone who took 537 wickets and scored more than 3500 runs in Test cricket; they will also have to reconcile to life without his immense knowledge and the ability to read situations like few others.