Ravichandran Ashwin, the legendary India off-spinner, announced his retirement from international cricket after the end of the third Test match between Australia and India in the ongoing Border-Gavaskar Trophy 2024/25 at the Gabba in Brisbane.
It was a shocking announcement given that it came in the middle of the series and no one was aware that such a decision would come in the middle of such an important series. Ashwin was part of the second Test match of the series, which was a pink ball Test at the Adelaide. It turned out to be the last Test match of the career of Ashwin.
Ravindra Jadeja, the fellow all-rounder of Ashwin, has been impeccable with the ball and bat along with the Tamil Nadu man. This partnership has been one of the main reasons why India have been so dominant in Test matches at home between 2012 and 2024 and have not lost any Test series at home in this period.
What did Ravindra Jadeja say about Ravichandran Ashwin?
Ravindra Jadeja and Ravichandran Ashwin (Image Credits: Twitter)
Jadeja broke his silence on the retirement of his Ashwin and said that he had no idea about the decision of Ashwin and only came to know about it just five minutes before the press conference. Jadeja added that he spent the whole day with Ashwin but the Tamil Nadu man did not give him a single hint of his upcoming decision.
Jadeja said, “I got to know about the retirement at the last moment, five minutes before the Press conference – it was shocking – we spent the entire day together and he didint even gave me the hint – we all know how Ashwin’s mind works (laughs)”.
Jadeja talked about the lovely bond and the friendship that he shared with Ashwin after playing together for such a long time for India. Both of them used to correct the mistakes committed by each other and discuss about the match situations.
“He was my on-field mentor, and we played together for a long time. There was a bond between us, and we regularly shared messages about the conditions in a particular match. We had a discussion about the shots a batter could play and what we should be doing against him,” he said.
Ashwin has played 106 Test matches and has picked up 537 Test wickets at an average of 24.01 and a strike-rate of 50.74. He has 37 five-wicket hauls and eight ten-wicket hauls in Test cricket.
