India off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin has announced his retirement from international cricket with immediate effect, bringing an end to a career in which he claimed 765 wickets for his country across the formats.
Ashwin, 38, made the announcement after India’s draw with Australia in the Brisbane Test, a game he was not selected for.
He said: “This will be my last day as an Indian cricketer in all formats at the international level.
“I feel there’s a little bit of punch left in me as a cricketer, but I’d like to express that, showcase that in club-level cricket.”
Ashwin is India’s second-highest Test wicket-taker, with his 537 scalps behind only Anil Kumble (619), while he claimed 156 one-day international wickets and 72 in T20 internationals.
Ashwin’s number of Test five-wicket hauls (37) is only eclipsed by Sri Lanka’s Muttiah Muralitharan (67).
The Chennai born player also struck 3,503 Test runs, with six hundreds and 14 half-centuries.
Ashwin, who is the seventh-highest wicket-taker in men’s Test cricket, added: “I’ve had a lot of fun.
“I have made a lot of memories alongside Rohit [Sharma] and several of my team-mates, even though we’ve lost some of them [to retirements] over the last few years.
“We’re the last bunch of OGs, we can say that. I will be marking this as my date of having played at this level.
“Obviously there are a lot of people to thank, but I will be failing in my duties if I didn’t thank the BCCI and fellow team-mates.
“Most importantly, Rohit, Virat [Kohli], Ajinkya [Rahane], [Cheteshwar] Pujara, who have taken some of the catches around the bat and given me the number of wickets I’ve managed to get over the years.”
Ashwin could be usurped by Australia off-spinner Nathan Lyon on the list of Test wicket-takers by the end of the ongoing series, with the latter on 533 wickets in his career, four behind Ashwin’s total.
Lyon is likely to add to that number in the final two games in Melbourne (from December 26) and then Sydney (from January 3).
Tributes pour in for retiring Ashwin
Ashwin’s current and former team-mates, including Virat Kohli, paid tribute to the spinner on social media.
Rohit: I knew Ashwin planned to retire
India captain Rohit Sharma said he had heard Ashwin was planning to retire but convinced him to prolong his career in order to play in the pink-ball second Test against Australia in Adelaide – a match in which the spinner took one wicket and scored 29 runs as the tourists suffered a 10-wicket defeat.
Ashwin had been omitted from the series opener as India thumped their hosts by 295 runs.
Ashwin made his India Test debut against West Indies in 2011 and took the first of his 37 five-wicket hauls in the format
Rohit said of his team-mate: “I somehow convinced him to stay for the [Adelaide Test].
“It just happened that if he felt he was not needed right now in the series, he was better off saying goodbye to the game.
“Some decisions are very personal and I don’t think too many questions should be asked or raised. If a player has [made] a choice, he has to be given that choice.
“He was very sure about what he wanted to do and the team has complete backing of his thought process.
“It’s important a player like him, who has had so many moments with the Indian team and been a truly a big match-winner for us, is allowed to make those decisions on his own.
“If it was now, so be it.”
Australia captain Pat Cummins added of Ashwin: “He will go down as one of the all-time greats.
“He’s obviously been a fantastic player all around the world and there aren’t that many finger spinners that have that kind of longevity.
“There’s a massive respect from our changing room for the career that he’s had.”
