The Indian cricket team spinner Ravichandran Ashwin has decided to retire from international cricket at the international level. This announcement was made during a post-match press conference after the third Test match against Australia in Brisbane, which was drawn.
Ashwin, who only played the second Test of the five-match Test series in Adelaide, was replaced by Ravindra Jadeja in the Test match at Brisbane.
Ashwin exits from international cricket as the second-highest wicket-taker for India across test matches in which he has represented India in 106 matches and taken a total of 537 wickets.
He departs with a phenomenal record, and only Anil Kumble (619) is ahead of him in the list of India’s most successful Test bowlers. Well, this came as a big shock and brings the curtains down on Ashwin’s illustrious career, and he will go down in the history books as one of the greatest spinners ever.
“This will be my last day as an Indian cricketer in all formats”- Ravichandran Ashwin
The prominent Indian spinner Ravichandran Ashwin declared on Wednesday, December 18, that he was retiring from international cricket. India’s second-leading wicket-taker in both Test and international cricket is the 38-year-old spinner.
“This will be my last day as an Indian cricketer in all formats at the international level. I do feel there’s a bit of punch left in me as a cricketer, but I would like to expose and probably showcase that in club-level cricket, but this will be the last day. I’ve had a lot of fun. I must say I’ve created a lot of memories alongside Rohit (Sharma) and several of my other teammates. Even though I’ve lost some of them over the last few years, we are the last bunch of OGs if we can say that, left out of the dressing room. I would be marking this as my date of having played at this level” Ravichandran Ashwin said at the press conference.
“Obviously, there are a lot of people to thank, but I would be failing in my duties if I didn’t thank the BCCI and the fellow teammates, several of them. I want to name a few of them. All the coaches who’ve been a part of the journey, most importantly Rohit, Virat (Kohli), Ajinkya (Rahane), (Cheteshwar) Pujara, who’ve taken those splendid catches around the back to give me the number of wickets I’ve managed to get over the years. Also a big thank you to the Australian cricket team, who’ve been very fierce competitors. I’ve enjoyed my time playing against them. I think it’s already getting long” Ravichandran Ashwin said.
“It’s truly a very emotional moment I don’t think I’m in a position where I would be answering the questions in the right way so please pardon me for that and once again yeah that’s my time thanks for being the journalist that you’ve been writing good things and of course writing nasty things on occasions that’s a relationship I think we would maintain forever and I hope the cricketers to come in the future will also get the same amount of love that you’ve given them once again thank you all and yeah see you all soon as a cricketer I’ve just stopped it and I might go on to be involved with the game because this is a game that’s given me everything” Ravichandran Ashwin added.
Ashwin retires from cricket as the second-best wicket-taker for India in Tests, with 537 scalps in 106 games.
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