Ravichandran Ashwin landed back home in Chennai less than 24 hours after shocking the cricket world on Wednesday with his retirement from international cricket midway through India’s tour of Australia.
The off-spinner received a warm welcome by his family, besides his close friends and neighbours who had gathered to pay tribute to Ashwin’s legendary career, as he ended his 14-year journey with 537 Test wickets — which is only second to Anil Kumble’s 619 wickets.
Trumpets blew and drums rolled as soon as Ashwin’s car entered his neighbourhood, and he was garlanded upon entering the residential complex.
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“I am going to play for CSK and don’t be surprised if I try and aspire to play for as long as can. I don’t think Ashwin the cricketer is done, I think Ashwin the Indian cricketer has probably called it time. That’s it,” Ashwin told reporters after arriving on Thursday.
On his retirement call, Ashwin said the decision was “instinctive” and he is feeling “sense of relief and satisfaction”.
“It’s emotional for a lot of people. It will be emotional, maybe it will sink in. But for me, it’s a great sense of relief and satisfaction…It had been running in my head for a while but it was very instinctive. I felt it on day 4 and called it on day 5,” he added.
Ashwin announced his sudden decision to retire at the conclusion of the rain-hit third Test of the Border Gavaskar Trophy in Brisbane, which ended in a draw. It kept the five-Test series evenly poised at 1-1.
After the match, Ashwin came out to make an official announcement and left soon after that. He did not take any questions from the media.
“This will be my last day as an Indian cricketer in all formats at an international level,” said Ashwin, who accompanied captain Rohit Sharma to the press conference.
“It’s truly a very emotional moment…it’s a game that’s given me everything. I do feel that there is a bit of a punch left in me as a cricketer but I would like to showcase that at club-level cricket. I’ve created a lot of memories alongside Rohit and my other teammates. Most importantly Rohit, Virat (Kohli), Ajinkya (Rahane), (Cheteshwar) Pujara who have taken those splendid catches around the bat to give me the number of wickets I’ve managed to get over the years.
“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,” he added.
Ashwin also made a name for himself as Test allrounder, with six centuries to his name in red-ball internationals. He also enjoyed being the top-ranked Test allrounder in the ICC rankings.
In white-ball cricket, Ashwin played 116 ODIs, taking 156 wickets. In 65 T20Is, he claimed 72 wickets.
He achieved the distinction of being the first bowler to reach 100 wickets in World Test Championship and currently leads WTC’s wicket-taking charts with 195 dismissals in 41 matches, with Australian spinner Nathan Lyon following closely at 190 wickets.