Brisbane: Indian captain Rohit Sharma has stated that he convinced Indian off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin to delay his retirement from international cricket. The 38-year-old drew curtains on his career after playing a pivotal in India’s dominance at home in Test cricket. Ashwin played in Adelaide but was out of the squad for the red-ball fixtures in Perth and Brisbane.
Ashwin played only in one fixture of the series in Brisbane which was also a Pink Ball Test. Ashwin bowled out as the second-highest wicket-taker for India in Test cricket on Thursday.
"I heard R Ashwin’s retirement when I came to Perth. I was not there for the first few days of the Test. This was in his mind since then. There are obviously a lot of things that went behind it. Ashwin, when he is in position, will be able to answer that. He understands the kind of combinations we are thinking of. When we came here as well, we were not sure which spinner was going to play,” Rohit stated in the post-match press conference.
“We just wanted to assess and see what kind of conditions we get in front of us. But yeah, when I arrived in Perth, we had a chat and somehow convinced him to stay for the pink-ball Test match. It happened so that he felt 'if I am not needed right now in the series, then I am better off saying goodbye to the game.”
Ashwin has played in 106 Tests, 116 ODIs and 65 T20Is for the national side picking 537, 156 and 72 wickets respectively. He formed a lethal spin duo along with Ravindra Jadeja for the Indian team over the years and played a key role in the Test victories for the national side.
