Ravichandran Ashwin was part of the India side that completed a Test series win in the West Indies in July. On August 3, he was back to playing club cricket in Chennai, in the TNCA Division 1.

R Ashwin finished the West Indies series with 15 wickets – more than any two bowlers from either side put together – at 15 runs apiece, and made 56 runs in his only innings.

In the first Test match, at Roseau, his second-innings figures of 7-71 and match figures of 12-131 became new records for India in the West Indies.

Yet, ten days after the series ended, Ashwin took field as captain of Mylapore Recreation Club A against Young Stars Cricket Club in a Tamil Nadu Cricket Association Division 1 match at Sri Sivasubramaniya Nadar College of Engineering Ground in Chennai.

Opening the bowling, he sent down 26 out of the 90 overs for his side, but finished with 0-70 as Young Stars recovered from 167-4 to finish the day on 262-5.

Of course, Ashwin had honed his skills in his formative years in Chennai (erstwhile Madras) club cricket. In 2014, his father N Ravichandran had even acquired the exotically named Book Sellers XI.

Even then, it is unusual for an Indian cricketer of the stature of Ashwin – only 11 wickets away from joining Shane Warne and Stuart Broad in the league of cricketers with the 3,000 run-500 wicket Test double – to feature in club cricket.

It would not have been as unusual back in the 1970s, when India played mostly Test cricket, or even in the 1980s, when club cricket used to be fiercely contested.

Dadar Union versus Shivaji Park in Bombay, Sonnet versus NIS in Delhi, Mohun Bagan versus East Bengal in Calcutta used to attract star cricketers, as did inter-office cricket in an era when cricketers used to earn significantly less. There are stories of Gavaskar arriving in the wee hours of the morning from a Test tour and turning out for Dadar Union a few hours later.

But as international matches grew in frequency and the IPL took up two months of the calendar, India cricketers have appeared less frequently in domestic cricket.

Gavaskar’s 125 Test matches formed 36 per cent of his first-class career. For Sachin Tendulkar, it dropped to 65 per cent. For Virat Kohli, 78 per cent.

For established Indian cricketers, a return to domestic cricket is often a way to test match fitness after an injury keeps them out, or a way to reclaim their spot after they are left out. And club cricket is another level lower.

Ashwin’s decision to play club cricket was, thus, an exception, not the rule. But then, this is a man who played for Tamil Nadu in all three formats until 2019/20, and even in the 2023 edition of the Tamil Nadu Premier League.