It is understood that Ashwin had been prepared for it for some time.
Talismanic India spinner Ravichandran Ashwin announced his retirement from international cricket earlier today after the culmination of the third Border Gavaskar Trophy (BGT) Test in Brisbane which ended in a draw.
While the decision comes as a surprise, it is understood that Ashwin had been prepared for it for some time.
Following the historic 0-3 loss at home against New Zealand, there were multiple reports claiming that the Indian management has given an ultimatum to India’s top senior players with Ashwin being one of the names.
The reports further indicated that these players may have already played their final home Test matches in case India doesn’t qualify for the World Test Championship (WTC) Final. Thus, with a dangling sword over Ashwin’s shoulders, he decided to go out on a high.
ALSO READ: Rohit Sharma Takes a Dig at National Cricket Academy in the Press Conference After Gabba Test
There have also been clear indications that the Indian team is looking into the future and feels the time has come to transition to younger spinners, who can become mainstays in the squad.
While Ravichandran Ashwin has been preferred as India’s designated spinner in overseas tours, he was dropped from the series opener in Perth to give Washington Sundar a chance.
India skipper Rohit also added that he had to urge Ashwin to play the Pink ball Test in Adelaide, which came as a tangent given Ashwin was the frontrunner for the role at the start of the series.
“I heard when I came to Perth,” Rohit said about Ashwin’s decision.
“Obviously, I was not there for the first three or four days of the first Test match, but this was in his mind since then, and there are obviously a lot of things that went behind it.”
The skipper went on to hint that Ashwin was possibly not in the team’s plans in the future.
“I’m pretty sure Ash will be in a position to answer that, but he understands what the team is thinking, he understands what kind of combinations we are thinking, and when we came here as well, we were not sure about which spinner is going to play. We just wanted to assess and see what kind of conditions we get in front of us.”
Interestingly, India played three spinners in three different games, opting to include Ravindra Jadeja in the recent Brisbane Test as a better batting option.
Looking back, one can only assume that Ashwin wanted to retire after he was dropped from the Perth Test but was given a sort of farewell game at Adelaide, but it’s just speculation at the moment until we get more from the horse’s mouth.
Ashwin refused to take questions during the press conference, so we will possibly only know after a while through his YouTube channel on the real reasons behind one of India’s greatest spinners calling it quits in the middle of the series.
For more updates, follow CricXtasy on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Telegram, and YouTube.
