The veteran off-spin all-rounder of the Indian side, Ravichandran Ashwin, has decided to hang up his shoes in international cricket after the end of the third Test of the five-match series in the Border Gavaskar Trophy (BGT) 2024-25 at the Gabba in Brisbane, which he wasn’t part of, having featured the second day-night affair at the Adelaide Oval.
Ravichandran Ashwin finishes as the seventh leading wicket-taker in the longest format, being the second on the list of Indians after Anil Kumble with 619 scalps. He is the fastest to reach 50 to 500 wicket milestones for the national side in terms of the matches played.
In 106 games, he has picked up 537 wickets at an average of 24 and a strike rate of 50.7 with the help of 37 five-wicket hauls, the joint second most in the game after Shane Warne (145 games) in a list headed by Sri Lanka’s Muttiah Muralitharan (67 five-fers in 133 red-ball games). His strike rate of 50.7 is among the top ten who have picked at least 200 Test scalps.
In his peak time, Ravichandran Ashwin collected 294 Test scalps in just 55 games at an average of around 22 in duration between 2015 and 2021, when he averaged just 20.88 in Asia. The only two countries for him to average over 30 are South Africa (30.71) and New Zealand (30.71).
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This will be my last day as an Indian cricketer in all formats at the international level. I do feel there is a bit of punch left in me as a cricketer, but I would like to expose that and probably showcase that in clubs that are in cricket, but this will be the last day. I had a lot of fun.” The Tamil Nadu spinner expressed alongside Rohit Sharma at the press conference.
Former Australian players were surprised at the sudden retirement of Ravichandran Ashwin
However, the former Australian wicket-keeper, Brad Haddin, was surprised at the entire scenario and felt that the decision from Ravichandran Ashwin might have come on the frustration of having been dropped from this Test in place of left-arm spin all-rounder of the Blue Brigade, Ravindra Jadeja.
“More will come out when Ashwin has his opportunity to speak; just reading between the lines, it looked like he may have been a bit frustrated with the spinning options that they’ve changed in the first three Test matches. To me, he was a student of the game (and) always looking at ways to get better, he’s earned the right.” Haddin explained to Fox Cricket at the end of the Test encounter.
The Tamil Nadu spinner was part of 11 Tests in the ongoing year 2024, where he picked up 47 wickets at an average of 26.15 and a strike rate of around 42 with the help of three five-wicket hauls. His best year in the five-day format came in 2015 when he bagged 62 Test scalps in nine games at an average of under 18.
The former pacer of Australia, Brett Lee, has compared the retirement of Ravichandran Ashwin with the former England off-spinner, Graeme Swann during the third Ashes Test at the WACA in Perth 2013, despite the last game being in a spin-friendly track of Sydney.
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“I think the last time a spinner retired through a series (in Australia) was Graeme Swann. He may have been told that he’s not going to play any further part in this series, and rightly so, (he) just decided to go out on his terms.” Lee highlighted this in the discussion.
Ravichandran Ashwin will keep on featuring for Tamil Nadu and Chennai Super Kings in the 2025 season of the Indian Premier League (IPL).