“If I am not needed right now in the series, I am better off saying goodbye to the game,” R Ashwin told India skipper Rohit Sharma before his surprise international retirement, refusing to let anyone else write his script after 14 years of service to the game. It is understood that retirement was on his mind after the home series against New Zealand, which India shockingly lost 0-3. He had made it clear to the team management that if he was not guaranteed a place in the playing eleven during the Australia series, he would not even travel Down Under.
India played Washington Sundar ahead of Ashwin in Perth before the veteran returned for the pink ball Test, at Rohit’s insistence.
Ravindra Jadeja played in the Brisbane Test and as Rohit stated after the drawn third Test in Gabba, nobody knew how the squad would shape up for the remaining two games in Melbourne and Sydney.
“There was no nudge from the selection committee. Ashwin is a legend in Indian cricket and he has the right to take his own call,” a senior BCCI source told PTI on conditions of anonymity.
The next Test series is in England (June to August) where India might not take along more than two specialist spinners who are also batters. India’s next home Test series is in October-November.
So, 10 months is a long time and once this World Test Championship cycle ends, one is looking at 2027. Ashwin would have been 40 by then with transition in Indian cricket hopefully complete.
Ashwin’s decision not to wait till the series against Australia gets over also indicated that the decision to drop him for Washington in the opening game at Perth was what broke the proverbial camel’s back.
An astute reader of the game both on and off the field, Ashwin might have gauged what was in store going forward and that perhaps made it easier for him to take a call.
After 537 Test wickets, at the age of 38, and for a man who wore the India colours with a lot of pride, Ashwin didn’t want to just sit there in the dressing room wearing a fluorescent green bib that is reserved for the reserves.
The New Zealand series obviously gave the signs when he ended with nine wickets from three games with two played on tailor-made surfaces in Pune and Mumbai.
Washington, in comparison, took 12 in Pune, a match in which Ashwin managed five.
Rohit wasn’t present in Perth when the playing eleven was finalised and it could be safely concluded that it was coach Gautam Gambhir, who had a say on who will be India’s No. 1 off-spinner going forward and the name wasn’t Ashwin.
Once he linked up with the team, Rohit had to convince Ashwin to play in Adelaide.
“When I arrived in Perth, this was a chat we had and I somehow convinced him to stay for that pink ball Test match and then after that, it just happened…He felt that if I am not needed right now in the series, I am better off saying goodbye to the game,” the India captain revealed.
“It’s important when a player like him who has had so many moments with the Indian team and he has been a truly big match-winner for us, he is allowed to make those decisions on his own and if it was now, so be it,” added Rohit.
Ashwin’s predecessor Harbhajan Singh felt the Chennai-man could have delayed this announcement until after the series.
“Numbers can’t lie and he has such a phenomenal record. I would have ideally liked him to stay back for the final two Tests as in Sydney, he could have played a part. But it’s an individual call,” he told PTI.
“When the name is as big as Ashwin, it is the player, who decides. May be he didn’t want to hang around,” the ‘Turbantor’ said.
There is a school of thought that even if India would have gone with two spinners in Sydney if the conditions permitted, Jadeja would have been paired with Washington, because both are considered more capable batters in SENA countries.
Mahendra Singh Dhoni had announced his decision to retire from Test cricket after the third game in Melbourne but that had a lot to do with long sessions of keeping which were affecting his dodgy back and he desperately wanted to continue playing white-ball cricket.
In case of Ashwin, the realisation that he is not even being considered among the top two spinners must have been too much to accept.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
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