Ravichandran Ashwin, the celebrated off-spinner from India, announced his retirement from international cricket just moments after the Test against Brisbane ended in a draw on Wednesday night. The next day, the Chennai-born player was welcomed into his home in Chennai right after announcing his retirement from International Cricket. After announcing his retirement, Ravichandran Ashwin expressed his feelings on the decision. It, for him, is “a great sense of relief and satisfaction” to take the decision of saying good-bye with it all from international cricket.
“Hence, I might pay later tribute, but now maybe sink in. For me, though, it’s great relief and satisfaction having milked it most instinctively by running it through my head for a while before deciding on day 5 after it hit me on day 4,” Ashwin said while speaking to ANI.
Further, the 38-year-old cricketer spoke about rejoining the five-time champions Chennai Super Kings franchise for the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2025. “I am going to play for CSK and don’t be surprised if I try and aspire to play for as long as I can. I don’t think Ashwin the cricketer is done, I think Ashwin the Indian cricketer has probably called it time. That’s it,” Ashwin added.
The announcement came during a press conference that occurred post the match, where Ashwin was present next to India’s captain Rohit Sharma. The retirement speculation began when Ashwin became emotional after the men hug when he was supposed to be welcomed by Virat Kohli.
The career of Ashwin as a Test cricketer is characterized by 106 matches played within which he captured a staggering 537 wickets, including 37 five-wicket hauls, and scored 3503 runs. Thus, these great statistics are cast much further by numerous invaluable contributions he made to Indian cricket.
He is the seventh-highest wicket-taker in the history of Test cricket and number two from India after Anil Kumble (619). He also holds the second-most five-wicket hauls in Tests, after Sri Lankan legend Muttiah Muralitharan (67).
Ashwin had been tremendously influencing India’s Test cricket, especially when India wanted to tactically snatch the top position from the year 2014 to 2019.
In limited-overs cricket, Ashwin made 181 appearances, taking 228 wickets. He took part in 116 ODIs, claiming 156 wickets with best figures of 4/25 and scoring 707 runs. In 65 T20Is, he took 72 wickets, with best figures of 4/8, and scored 184 runs
With 765 international wickets accumulated across formats, Ashwin is now India’s second-highest wicket-taker after Kumble (953) in the international arena. He also was part of the World Cup-winning squad of 2011 and the Champions Trophy team of 2013.
Ashwin also leaves behind the end of a wonderful era that touches beyond an inspirational path for future generations.
