Ravichandran Ashwin has announced his retirement from international cricket. India’s off-spinner played only a solitary Test in the ongoing Australia tour and finished with 537 wickets to his name. He played 107 Test matches for India picking a plethora of wickets at an average of 24 picking up a massive 37 five-wicket hauls and eight 10-wicket match hauls. His strike rate of 50.7 and economy of 2.83 are among the best for the bowler who bowled almost 13,000 deliveries in his Test career.
The 38-year-old made an official announcement in the post-match press conference as the Test match between India and Australia at Gabba in Brisbane ended in a draw. The last match of Ashwin’s career turned out to be the pink-ball Test in Adelaide where he scored 29 runs across two innings and picked up one wicket.
“This will be my last day as an Indian cricketer in all formats at the international level. I do feel there’s a bit of punch left in me as a cricketer, but I would like to expose and showcase that in club-level cricket. This will be the last day. I’ve had a lot of fun. I must say I’ve created a lot of memories alongside Rohit and several of my other teammates. Even though I’ve lost some of them over the last few years, we are the last bunch of OGs, if we can say that, left out in the dressing room. I would be marking this as my date of having played at this level.
“Obviously, there are a lot of people to thank, but I would be failing in my duties if I didn’t thank the BCCI and fellow teammates. Several of them. I want to name a few of them. All the coaches who have been part of the journey, most importantly Rohit, Virat, Ajinkya, Pujara, who have taken those splendid catches around the bat to give me the number of wickets I’ve managed to get over the years. Also a big thank you to the Australian cricket team, who have been very fierce competitors.
“I’ve enjoyed my time playing against them. I think it’s already getting long. I wouldn’t be taking any questions, but it’s truly a very emotional moment. I don’t think I’m in a position where I would be answering the questions in the right way. Please pardon me for that. Once again, that’s my time. Thanks for being the journalist that you’ve been, writing good things and of course writing and asking things on occasions. That’s a relationship I think we would maintain forever and I hope the cricketers to come in the future will also get the same amount of love that you’ve given them. Once again, thank you all and see you all soon. As a cricketer, I’ve just stopped it and I might go on to be involved with the game because this is a game that’s given me everything. Thank you,” Ashwin said in the press conference at the end of the Gabba Test.
Overall, India’s modern-day spin legend ended up playing 106 Tests, 116 ODIs and 65 T20Is accounting for 537, 156 and 72 wickets respectively. He also scored 3503 runs in the longest format of the game at an average of 25.75 with six centuries and 14 half-centuries.
The off-spinner played Test cricket for the majority of the second half of his illustrious career with the team moving on from him in white-ball cricket. However, Ashwin, for the fight he is known to put up to, made a stunning comeback in the shorter formats playing the T20 World Cup in 2021 and 2022 and also the ODI World Cup in India last year.
At the same time, he will keep playing in the Indian Premier League (IPL) for the Chennai Super Kings (CSK) which is also his homecoming in the cash-rich tournament.
