Bittersweet homecoming for a pair of Chennaites

Ravichandran Ashwin and Murali Vijay are different characters in quite a few respects. While Ashwin is an extrovert, Vijay opens up only to a select few. Ashwin is a Rajinikanth fan, but Vijay swears by Kamal Haasan. For a long time they represented rival teams in the city’s first-division league, and probably have different friend circles as well.

Their paths, however, converge at their mothership: Chennai. The city dotes on them – they are currently Chennai’s biggest cricketing icons – and they can’t love it back enough.

They last played a Test match in Chennai nearly four years ago with contrasting fortunes – Ashwin grabbed 12 wickets whereas Vijay could muster only 16 runs in two innings and was probably one failure away from being dropped. However, when they head to Chepauk on Friday morning, such memories will come a distant second to the emotions that have surrounded them and their beloved city over the last few days.

Chennai has had two horrific Decembers in succession, with Cyclone Vardah ripping through the city, uprooting trees, claiming lives, and dismantling communication and logistics. Vijay and Ashwin have been deeply affected, just as they were during the floods that claimed hundreds of lives last year. This time they have also had to cope with personal bereavement: while it is learnt that the brother of Ashwin’s grandfather died during the cyclone, Vijay dedicated his century in Mumbai to a dear friend’s father who had passed away on the first day of the Test.

Former India wicketkeeper Bharath Reddy, who is in charge of Jolly Rovers – the team that Vijay played for in the TNCA league – says Vijay kept tabs of the situation on the ground in …

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