Ashwin’s call: No conversation with voters, but the decision to bow out was on the cards after the NZ series

It is understood he considered retirement after the home series against New Zealand, which India surprisingly lost 3-0. He had made it clear to the team management that he would not even travel Down Under if he was not guaranteed a place in the starting XI during the Australia series.

India played Washington Sundar ahead of Ashwin in Perth before the veteran returned for the pink-ball Test at Rohit’s insistence.

Ravindra Jadeja played in the Brisbane Test and as Rohit discovered after the drawn third Test at the Gabba, no one knew how the team would be formed for the remaining two games in Melbourne and Sydney.

“There was no push from the selection committee. Ashwin is a legend in Indian cricket and he has the right to take his own decision,” a senior BCCI source told PTI on condition of anonymity.

The next Test series will be in England, where India may take no more than two specialist spinners who are also batsmen. India’s next home Test series will take place in October-November.

So ten months is a long time and when this World Test Championship cycle ends, you’re looking at 2027. Ashwin would have been 40 by then and the transition to Indian cricket would hopefully be complete.

Ashwin’s decision not to wait until the end of the series against Australia also suggested that the decision to release him for Washington in the opening match in Perth was the proverbial blow to the camel.

Ashwin was an astute reader of the game on and off the field and might have been able to assess what lay ahead for him and that perhaps made it easier for him to take a decision.

After 537 Test wickets at the age of 38 and for a man who wore the Indian colors with a lot of pride, Ashwin didn’t want to just sit in the dressing room wearing a fluorescent green jersey reserved for reserve players.

The New Zealand series obviously gave the signs as he ended with nine wickets from three matches, two of which came on custom surfaces in Pune and Mumbai.

In comparison, Washington took 12 in Pune, a game in which Ashwin managed five.

Rohit was not present in Perth when the playing eleven was decided and it was safe to assume that it was coach Gautam Gambhir who had a say in who would be India’s No. 1 off-spinner in the future and the name was not Ashwin .

After joining the team, Rohit had to convince Ashwin to play in Adelaide.

“When I got to Perth we had a conversation and I somehow managed to convince him to stay for that pink-ball Test match and then it just happened… He felt if I wasn’t needed in the series now. “It’s better if I say goodbye to the game,” revealed the Indian captain.

“It is important that a player like him, who has experienced so many moments with the Indian team and was a really big match-winner for us, is allowed to make these decisions himself and if that is the case now, then so be it. “Rohit added.

Ashwin’s predecessor Harbhajan Singh said the Chennai man could have postponed this announcement until after the series.

“Numbers can’t lie and he has such a phenomenal record. I wish he had stayed back for the last two Tests as he could have played a role in Sydney. But it is an individual decision,” he told PTI.

“If the name is as big as Ashwin, the player decides. Maybe he didn’t want to hang around,” said the “Turban Gate.”

There is a school of thought that even if India had played with two spinners in Sydney, conditions permitting, Jadeja would have been paired with Washington because both are considered more capable batters in SENA countries.

Mahendra Singh Dhoni had announced his decision to retire from Test cricket after the third match in Melbourne, but it had a lot to do with the long training sessions affecting his weakening back and he was keen to continue playing white-ball. Play cricket.

In Ashwin’s case, the realization that he wasn’t even ranked among the top two spinners must have been too much to accept.

This article was generated from an automated news agency feed without any modifications to the text.