Former India off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin who announced his retirement in December 2024 in the middle of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy 2024-25 in Australia believes that in Indian cricket bowlers have no backing from the management citing the example of Australian cricket and hoping for a day when India would start celebrating its bowlers.
Ashwin who ended his career as India's second-highest wicket-taker after Anil Kumble will be seen playing alongside MS Dhoni in Chennai Super Kings in the upcoming season of the Indian Premier League 2025.
Meanwhile, in his free time, the legendary cricketer is attending events and gatherings while providing fans with a closer into Indian cricket. In such an event he alleged BCCI for not backing bowlers after their bad performance.
"It is an unfair world. The batters get cocooned, but the bowlers don't. You will find Akash Deep not playing another Test because he didn't get enough wickets in Australia. But you will never find another batter who hasn’t made enough runs not playing another game for India. That’s exactly why Australia is a dominant force in world cricket and Indians aren't,” said Ashwin at AWS AI Conclave 2025 in Bengaluru.
“Even though we have everything, I still think Australia are a dominant force because they know where their roots are and they know bowlers are their main guys who will win Test matches and tournaments. The day we get there, bowlers will start consuming data way better than they do,” he added.
R. Ashwin ended his career after playing 106 Tests, 116 ODIs and 65 T20Is for India. He got 537 scalps in the longest format of the game while 156 and 72 wickets in white-ball cricket respectively. The legendary spinner has rejoined his old franchise CSK where he started in 2008 as the franchise roped him in ahead of the 2025 IPL and he will be playing for his local team for the first time since 2015.