Ravichandran Ashwin breaks silence on international retirement; ‘Wanted to leave nonchalantly…’

Veteran Indian spinner Ravichandran Ashwin sent shockwaves across the entire cricketing world when he announced his retirement from cricket in the middle of Border Gavaskar Trophy in Australia earlier this month. While Ashwin made a statement to the press about his retirement, he refused to take any questions on the matter. However, the 37 year old had now finally broken his silence on international cricket retirement giving insights behind why he took the decision at this stage in his career.

Ravichandran Ashwin on international cricket retirement:

Speaking on the Sky Sports Cricket Podcast with Nasser Hussain and Michael Atherton, Ashwin admitted to thinking about the retirement question a few times in his career but decided to take the call when his creative side did not see a future anymore.

"I did contemplate [retirement] a few times. For me, the day I woke up and felt the creative side of me didn't have a future or direction, that would be the day I would give it up. I suddenly felt that the creative side didn't have a lot of upsides to explore," Ashwin said

"There is always that question that lies inside you. You keep asking yourself, 'Am I making this decision the right way?' In my case, it was slightly different. I do not know how to exactly position this. I've never been a person who holds onto things. I've never felt insecure in life. I don't believe what is mine today is going to be mine tomorrow. That has probably been one of my elevating factors all these years," the Chennai born cricketer added.

Reacting to the popular perception that he deserved a hero's see-off from cricket, Ashwin said he does not believe in people celebrating him, and the game stands ahead of him. He said, "I always wanted to leave things behind as nonchalantly as I could because I do not believe in people celebrating me. I don't believe in the attention we get sometimes in India. It is the game that always stood ahead of me, all the time,"

Notably, Ashwin is the 7th highest wicket-taker in Test cricket with 537 wickets in the 106 matches. In terms of Indian bowlers, Ashwin is only behind Anil Kumble's 619 wickets.