Legendary off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin's sudden retirement from international in the middle of Border-Gavaskar Trophy 2024-25 shocked the cricketing world. He resigned from all forms of international cricket on December 18, 2024, after the third Test match between India and Australia ended in a draw because of rain at Gabba.
Soon after Ashwin's retirement, there were reports making headlines that head coach Gautam Gambhir is responsible for his sudden retirement from international cricket and there were some conversations between the two before he said goodbye to international cricket.
Ashwin who travelled back to India said that retiring was entirely his decision and marked only the end of his international cricket journey.
"I quit this part of my life. It was a full stop to that part of my life. I can talk cricket, I do YouTube, I love coaching. I can keep myself happy around cricket. I will stay connected with cricket.
"I don’t have any regrets; I am not angry at anyone. I didn’t cry even one bit. No one else is responsible for my retirement. If there’s someone, I am not aware of it,"Ashwin said during a conversation with television presenter Gobinath on a YouTube show.
Ashwin who was part of Rohit Sharma-led squad for five Test match series against Australia was featured in the second Test which was a pink-ball day/night Test played in Adelaide where he picked up one wicket. Australia won that match by 10 wickets.
Ashwin has played 106 Test matches for India where he picked up 537 wickets and scored 3503 runs. He remains the only Test cricketer to have claimed over 500 wickets and six centuries in the longest format of the game. In total Ashwin played 287 matches for India where he picked 765 wickets. He ended his career as India's second-highest wicket-taker across all formats, next to Kumble (953). He also won the 2011 50-Over World Cup and 2013 Champions Trophy with India.
Ashwin will now be seen playing alongside MS Dhoni in the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2025 as Chennai Super Kings (CSK) brought him in the mega auction that happened in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.
