Ravichandran Ashwin shocked the world when he walked out in the press conference alongside Rohit Sharma at the Gabba and announced his retirement from international cricket. The Tamil Nadu off-spinner was the player of the series against Bangladesh a few months ago.
Thus, the decision has taken the cricketing fraternity by surprise. It seemed like there was still quite a bit of cricket left in him. Barring the series against New Zealand at home, Ashwin was still churning out match-winning performances in Test cricket. In fact, his numbers in 2024 read 47 wickets from 11 Tests at an average of 27.25.
Ashwin’s last Test was the pink-ball game in Adelaide where he took one wicket and got scores of 22 & 7. He didn’t feature in the third Test at the Gabba as Ravindra Jadeja was preferred as the only spin-bowling all-rounder.
Rohit Sharma spoke very highly about Ashwin and his contributions to Indian cricket. The Indian captain revealed that he has been playing with the off-spinning all-rounder since their Under-17 days. He constantly heard of Ashwin taking large chunks of wickets in domestic cricket.
“He is a very funny guy, there is no doubt about it. I have played cricket with Ash since U-17. He was an opener then. And then a few years later, we all disappeared. And then suddenly I am hearing news about Tamil Nadu… R Ashwin taking five wickets, seven wickets. And I was wondering who this guy is. Because I played him as a batsman, and then suddenly he has turned out to be a bowler who is taking fifers,” Rohit Sharma was quoted saying in the press conference at the Gabba in Brisbane.
Whenever there was a crisis, we had to look upon Ashwin: Rohit
Rohit and Ashwin are of a similar age and have come through the ranks almost at the same time. While Rohit burst onto the international scene in 2007, Ashwin made his international debut in 2010. But since then, both cricketers have played alongside each other a lot for India.
The 38-year-old could not hold back his praise for Ashwin and termed him as one of the true match-winners for India. He feels that Ashwin always stepped up when the team was in tricky situations.
“And then, obviously, at international cricket, we met again, and then we had a long, long journey together since 2010. So, it has been a long time playing together. We all know what he has done for this team, so I don’t need to repeat it again and again, but [he is] one of the true match-winners that India has ever seen. Whenever there was a crisis, we had to look upon Ash, and then he was there to deliver for us. So, yeah, his record speaks for itself as well. He has been such a servant of Indian cricket, where he has probably not left any stone unturned,” Rohit added.
Ashwin retired with a staggering 537 wickets in Test cricket which came at an average of 24.00. He also took 156 and 72 wickets in the ODI and T20I formats respectively. He featured in 106 Tests, 116 ODIs and 65 T20Is in his 14-year career.
