Virat Kohli shared a very moving moment with Ravichandran Ashwin moments before the latter announced his international retirement after the end of the third Border-Gavaskar Trophy Test at the Gabba in Brisbane on Wednesday (December 18).
Virat was seen chatting with R Ashwin when the two Indian openers Yashasvi Jaiswal and KL Rahul were in the middle on day five of the Gabba Test. Virat gave Ashwin a warm hug as their conversation came to an end.
Watch the video of Virat Kohli hugging Ravichandran Ashwin:
Ashwin accompanied India captain Rohit Sharma into the post-match press conference after rain forced a draw at the Gabba. The 38-year-old India spinner announced his retirement from all forms of international cricket and left the press conference for Rohit Sharma to interact with the journalists.
“This will be my last day as an Indian cricketer in all formats at the international level,” said Ashwin during the press conference. “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.”
Notably, Ashwin retires as the leading wicket-taker for India and overall among active cricketers in Tests. He was the fastest to complete 350 Test wickets and has the joint-most Player of the Series awards (11) in the red-ball format. Sri Lanka’s legendary spinner Muttiah Muralidaran also finished with 11 Player of the Series awards.
