Explained: Why Ravichandran Ashwin retired in the middle of BGT 2024?

Ravichandran Ashwin, one of the legendary off-spinners and all-rounders who ever played for India, left everyone in shock after announcing his retirement on Wednesday, December 18. Ashwin announced the verdict on his international cricket just after the conclusion of the third Test of the ongoing Border Gavaskar Trophy 2024-25.

The 38-year-old was also a part of India’s playing XI in the Pink-Ball Test against Australia in Adelaide. Later, he couldn’t make it to the playing XI of the recently concluded Gabba Test in Brisbane, which eventually happened to be the last match of his international career as a part of India’s national squad.

With that said, here we’ll decode the factors and reasons behind the mid-series retirement of Ravichandran Ashwin and what made him come up with this ‘big decision.

Here's a line of events on 'retirement decision' by Ravichandran Ashwin

A lot of cricket fans or experts may think that it’s a shocking announcement from the legendary off-spinner. But it was something that Ashwin had in his mind last year when Australia was on India’s tour for the Border Gavaskar Trophy 2023. He was also going through some issues with his knee in the recent couple of months.

Some of the reports have also understood that Ashwin had already informed his family about this ‘retirement decision’ before flying to Australia with Team India. However, he avoided making any decision before the commencement of the ongoing Border Gavaskar Trophy 2024-25.

Meanwhile, Ashwin’s family also told him that he should think again before coming up with any ‘firm verdict’ on his international career. 
In the same line of events, Ashwin had a conversation with his family on Tuesday, just a day before the last day of the Brisbane Test. In this conversation, he intimated to his family that December 18 would be his last day as an ‘active cricketer’ in international cricket.

Meanwhile, Indian skipper Rohit Sharma also spoke about Ravichandran Ashwin’s pre-planned ‘retirement decision.’ Rohit revealed in the post-match press conference about his conversations with the Tamil Nadu veteran.

“Speaking about Ash, he was very very sure about this decision. I heard this when I came to Perth. Obviously, I was not there for the first three or four days of the Test match, but this was on his mind since then. There are obviously a lot of things that went behind it; I'm pretty sure, Ash, when he went in position, will be able to answer that,” said Rohit Sharma to journalists in the post-match press conference.

“He understands what the team is thinking. He understands what kind of combinations we are thinking of. When we came here as well, we were not sure about which spinner was going to play. We just wanted to assess and see what kind of conditions we get in front of us, But yeah, when I arrived in Perth, this was a chat we had, and I somehow convinced him to stay for that pink ball Test,” he added later.