Ashwin explains shock retirement in the middle of BGT

Indian spinner Ravichandran Ashwin took the cricketing world by storm with his shock retirement in the middle of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy in December last year.

Having played for India in 106 Test matches, claiming 537 wickets at an average of 24, the right-arm spinner is the country’s second-highest wicket-taker in Test cricket after Anil Kumble.

Ashwin has now revealed the reason behind his decision to retire from international cricket as India were playing against Australia in the Border-Gavaskar Trophy 2024-25.

In an interview with a foreign media outlet, the veteran spinner revealed that he had thought about retirement from international cricket in the home series against Australia in 2023 and then a year later when India defeated England at home.

“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 in 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.

According to the India spinner, he considered retirement after he was rested from the first Test of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy series.

“I thought, okay, let me go to Australia. Let me see how this goes. Because 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,” he added.