Kumble & Ashwin : A tale of coincidences in legendary retirements

One of the great Test careers came to a sudden end as the former legendary Indian off-spinner, Ravichandran Ashwin announced his retirement from international cricket on Wednesday, December 18. The 38-year-old addressed the journalists in a post-match press conference after the conclusion of the third Test at the Gabba in the ongoing Border Gavaskar Trophy.

Ashwin ended his international career being the second-highest wicket-taker for India Tests, with 537 wickets following the former legendary Indian leg-spinner Anil Kumble, who had 619 wickets to his name when he announced his retirement from international cricket. Ashwin registered 37 five-wicket hauls [in an innings] and eight 10-wicket hauls [in a match] compared to Kumble’s 35 five-wicket hauls [in an innings] and eight 10-wicket hauls [in a match].

Meanwhile, there is also an interesting coincidence between the retirement announcements of both the Indian greats. Ravichandran Ashwin and Anil Kumble. Here, we’ll look at this co-incidence taking both greats on the same page in terms of their retirements.

Both Ashwin and Kumble retired after a ‘drawn third Test’ of the Border Gavaskar Trophy

Those were the days of early ‘Delhi winters’ when Australia and India were taking on each other in the third Test of the Border Gavaskar Trophy 2008. The high-scoring game came to a point when Australia were given the target of 245 runs by India in the fourth innings of the game. The game happened to end in a ‘draw’ as Australia had scored 31 runs for no loss at the time of stumps on the last and fifth day of the match.

Just after the end of the game, what attracted the headlines and eyeballs of both cricket fans and experts was a shocking ‘retirement’ announcement from the then-Indian skipper and legendary leg-spinner Anil Kumble. The Indian legend called his time in international cricket on November 2, 2008, with 619 Test wickets to his credit, still being India’s leading wicket-taker in the longest format of the game. 

16 years and 46 days after Anil Kumble’s retirement, a similar turnaround of things took place almost 10 thousand kilometres from Delhi in Brisbane when one of the greatest spinners of his era, Ravichandran Ashwin happened to put a curtain on his international career in a shocking announcement.

In an instance exactly resembling Anil Kumble’s retirement, Ashwin also announced his international after a ‘drawn third Test’ of the Border Gavaskar Trophy against Australia. The 38-year-old came ahead to address a press conference after the third Test of the ongoing Border Gavaskar Trophy 2024-25 ended in a ‘draw’ at the Gabba in Brisbane on Wednesday, December 18. 

This will be my last day as an Indian cricketer in all formats at the international level - Ravichandran Ashwin 

The visuals also surfaced on social media in which Ashwin was seen informing the former Indian skipper Virat Kohli about the ‘retirement decision.’ The emotional video also surfaced on social media as soon as it was shared. 

“I really didn’t want to make this about myself. Honestly, I think it would have been better if (Jasprit) Bumrah was here or Akash Deep was here. But Rohit (Sharma) is unfortunate to have me along his side. I am not going to take too much of your time. This will be my last day as an Indian cricketer in all formats at the international level. I do feel there is a bit of punch left in me as a cricketer but I would like to expose and probably showcase that in club-level cricket but this will be the last day,” said Ashwin in his initial words during the post-match press conference, alongside skipper Rohit Sharma.