NEWS
Follow UsIt’s been an emotional and chaotic 24 hours in Indian cricket, with one of the country’s greatest-ever cricketers, Ravichandran Ashwin, calling it quits from international cricket rather abruptly. Rain brought the third Border-Gavaskar Trophy Test in Brisbane to a premature end, but moments after the draw was finalised, Ashwin announced his retirement, leaving the cricketing world in shock.
Since the announcement, there’s been a lot of speculation over when the 38-year-old made the call to hang up his boots.
Now, less than 24 hours after retiring, Ashwin has cleared the air himself. He revealed that the decision to retire was a ‘very instinctive’ one.
"Very instinctive. It was running in my head for a while, but it was a very instinctive decision. I just felt on day four, and I called it on day five,” Ashwin told reporters on December 19 (Thursday).
The veteran cricketer further asserted that he feels a big ‘relief’ now, having hung up his boots in international cricket.
"To be honest, it was not a difficult decision,” he said of his retirement.
“I know it's emotional for a lot of people; maybe it will sink in [soon], but for me, personally, it's a great sense of relief and satisfaction.”
The 38-year-old further revealed that he’d been getting signs on a daily basis that it was time to move on.
"Back in the day, before going to bed, the knocks I played and the wickets I took used to flash in my head. But that's not been happening for a couple of years now. That itself was a slight indication that I had to move on to the next chapter of my career,” Ashwin revealed.
Ashwin made a total of 287 international appearances, yet ended his career somehow not captaining the Indian side even once. Does he regret not being able to lead his country?
"I have zero regrets not captaining the Indian team,” he said.
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