India's veteran spin-bowling all-rounder Ravichandran Ashwin was seen having an emotional convesation with Virat Kohli on Day 5 of the Gabba Test. During the tea break, Ashwin and Kohli were seen having a lengthy conversation in the dressing room. Ashwin looked emotional and at one point Kohli hugged his teammate.
Ashwin was dropped from the third Test by skipper Rohit Sharma as Ravindra Jadeja was chosen the lone spinner. The 38-year-old played just one Test on the tour. In the pink-ball Test at Adelaide Oval, he registered scores of 22 and 7. With the ball, he took one wicket from 53 runs.
Ashwin was later seen having a conversation with head coach Gautam Gambhir as well in Kohli's presence during the rain break.
After The Gabba Test ended in a draw, Ashwin announced his retirement from international cricket in the post-match press conference with Rohit by his side. An emotional Ashwin left the press conference after making the announcement and did not take any questions from the journalists.
"This will be my last day as India international cricketer. I will play club cricket. I had a lot of fun. There are a lot of people to thank, BCCI, teammates, family, Australia team," Ashwin said in the press conference.
Rohit also revealed that Ashwin had retirement on his mind since Perth Test. However, he got to know about it when he joined the squad ahead of the pink-ball warm-up game. Also, Ashwin will leave the Indian squad and won't travel with them for the remainder of Border-Gavaskar Trophy 2024-25.
