Off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin shocked the cricketing world with his sudden retirement after the third Test of India’s tour of Australia as he decided to quit the international arena with immediate effect, leaving himself available only for club-level cricket.
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The unexpected nature of the decision left multiple theories floating around, speculating the reason behind Ashwin’s departure; and former Australia wicketkeeper Brad Haddin feels there’s still more to come out of it.
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Calling the development a “funny one”, Haddin believes that Ashwin was unhappy about being benched for the Perth Test and decided enough’s enough when he was left out of the playing eleven in Brisbane as well.
Haddin also felt India had no proper plan in place, which showed in them opting for three different spinners in the first three Tests of the Border Gavaskar Trophy, which Australia won 3-1 in the end.
“The first three Test matches, they played three different spinners. So they arrived not knowing what their game style is going to be around here. It shouldn’t be a shock when you get here; they have played here enough, they have had success here. So Ashwin retiring mid-series was a funny one. I don’t think we’ve heard the last of that yet. I think he was just jack of not getting picked,” Haddin said while talking on an episode of the ‘Willow Talk’ podcast.
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India won the first Test in Perth, which remained their only victory of the series. They lost the pink-ball Test in Adelaide, the Boxing Day match in Melbourne and the New Year Test in Sydney.
The third Test in Brisbane was hit by rain and ended in a draw.
“I think he (Ashwin) sees himself as the number one spinner,” Haddin continued. “His record is elite, and he just went, ‘You know what, I’m not sitting on the bench. If you can’t decide that I’m your best spinner, I’m done. I’ve played enough. I don’t need this’.”
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Ashwin retired as India’s second most successful bowler in Test cricket. His 537 red-ball wickets are only behind leg-spin legend Anil Kumble’s 619.
Ashwin also featured in 116 ODIs and took 156 wickets. He played 65 T20Is, taking 72 wickets in the shortest format.
