Ravichandran Ashwin announced his retirement from IPL on Wednesday.
Former India all-rounder Ravichandran Ashwin, who retired from the Indian Premier League (IPL) on Wednesday, is eager to compete in England’s The Hundred tournament in 2026, according to The Telegraph.
Should he participate in The Hundred next year, he will become the first Indian men’s cricketer to compete in the tournament. Now that Ashwin is not a centrally-contracted player with the BCCI, he will not face any hurdles if he aspires to play in The Hundred.
As per BCCI’s rules, India’s male players are barred from playing overseas T20 leagues unless and until they retire from Indian cricket across all formats and levels. However, India’s women cricketers do not face any such hurdles, and Smriti Mandhana, Jemimah Rodrigues and Harmanpreet Kaur are among those who have played in The Hundred.
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Ashwin had announced his retirement from international cricket in December last year in the middle of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy series in Australia. He was particularly a prolific bowler in Tests, finishing with 537 wickets from 106 matches.
There had been a lot of talk surrounding the Tamil Nadu cricketer’s future at Chennai Super Kings following an underwhelming IPL 2025 season. In nine matches in IPL 2025, Ashwin took just seven wickets at an average of 40.42. The 38-year-old had returned to Chennai Super Kings after the five-time champions acquired him for a mammoth price of INR 9.75 crore at the IPL 2025 mega auction. However, he was unable to live up to the expectations.
Overall, the veteran all-rounder played 221 IPL matches for multiple teams, including Chennai Super Kings and Punjab Kings. He took 187 wickets at an average of 30.22, and scored 833 runs, registering just one fifty.
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The 2026 season of The Hundred will see teams under new ownerships after the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) sold a 49 percent stake in each of the eight teams. Four of the eight franchises, in fact, are under IPL ownerships, which means that these four teams could be frontrunners to get Ashwin, should he end up playing in The Hundred.
These four franchises are the Oval Invincibles (acquired by Reliance Industries Limited who own Mumbai Indians), Northern Superchargers (acquired by Sun Group who own Sunrisers Hyderabad), Manchester Originals (acquired by RPSG group who own Lucknow Super Giants), and Southern Brave (acquired by GMR Group who own Delhi Capitals).
