765 international wickets, 287 matches and Ravichandran Ashwin had to pull down the curtains on his illustrious career with a Test to go. While there were rumours of a rift within the India Cricket Team on the Australia tour, Ashwin has rubbished those. It was his personal call that he was contemplating since he played his 100th Test. With Washington Sundar also doing well, Ashwin called it a time before the Sydney Test.
“To be very honest, I wanted to do it after my 100th Test. And then I thought, Ok, let me give it a go in the home season. Because, I mean, you’re playing well and you’re getting wickets, you’re making runs. So I thought it does make sense to play a bit. I was having a lot of fun, but the whole hard yards that I had to put through to put myself on the park again, physically and mentally, one of the most important things for me that was pulling me down was the family time,” Ashwin said on Mike Testing 123 podcast with Chennai Super Kings’ batting coach Michael Hussey.
Why retire before Sydney Test?
Despite his exploits against England at home, Ashwin did not have a great outing against Bangladesh and New Zealand. Against Bangladesh, even though Ashwin had a six-wicket haul in the two-match series, he ended up with 11 wickets. Then came New Zealand and as India were whitewashed 0-3 at home, Ashwin could only manage nine wickets in three matches.
A young Washington Sundar overshadowed Ashwin with 16 wickets against New Zealand. Thus, he became India’s leading off-spinner on the Australia tour. Ashwin played just one match in Australia, picking up a solitary wicket. Sundar was preferred over him in the 1st Test in Perth. While Ashwin returned for the 2nd Test, he was dropped again for the Brisbane Test as Jadeja played the role of the spinner. In Melbourne, Sundar got the preference again, and that was the last straw.
Ashwin, who was already contemplating retirement after playing 100 Tests, made the emotional call. Even before the team was selected for the Sydney Test, Ashwin retired from international cricket at 38.
“I thought I’ll probably close off with the Chennai Test here. I ended up getting a six-wicket haul and a hundred. It’s very tough to quit when you’re doing very well. So, I went on with the series, and we lost against New Zealand. So one after the other, it was just building up. And then I thought, okay, let me go to Australia. Let me see how this goes. The last time I was in Australia, I had a great, great tour.”
“And when I didn’t start in Perth, it was like, okay, this whole circle keeps going again. People add very little value to what you’re going through emotionally. They don’t really consider that because your emotions are yours and it doesn’t matter to anybody else. So I had been contemplating that and then I thought, okay, maybe it is time,” Ashwin summed up his emotions and logic behind calling it quits with a Test to go.
Ravichandran Ashwin career stats
Bowling
| Format | Mat | Wkts | Best | Avge | Econ | 4w | 5w |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Tests | 106 | 537 | 7/59 | 24.00 | 2.83 | 25 | 37 |
| ODIs | 116 | 156 | 4/25 | 33.20 | 4.93 | 1 | 0 |
| T20Is | 65 | 72 | 4/8 | 23.22 | 6.90 | 2 | 0 |
| T20s | 331 | 315 | 4/8 | 26.93 | 7.11 | 4 | 0 |
Batting
| Format | Inns | Runs | HS | Ave | SR | 100s | 50s |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Tests | 151 | 3503 | 124 | 25.75 | 54.53 | 6 | 14 |
| ODIs | 63 | 707 | 65 | 16.44 | 86.96 | 0 | 1 |
| T20Is | 19 | 184 | 31* | 26.28 | 114.99 | 0 | 0 |
| FC | 228 | 5415 | 124 | 27.62 | 54.75 | 8 | 25 |
| T20s | 137 | 1212 | 50 | 14.60 | 119.29 | 0 | 1 |
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