India bowler Ravichandran Ashwin opens up on his retirement decision

Former India off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin on Thursday clarified that his decision to retire from the game was a personal call and "no one forced" him to call it quits midway through the Test tour of Australia tour last year.

Last year, R. Ashwin (39), stunned the cricket fraternity by announcing his retirement after the third Test of the 2024-25 Border-Gavaskar Trophy in Brisbane. Recently, he also announced his retirement from the Indian Premier League (IPL) in August this year.

"No one told me that you should go, no one told me that there is no place for you in the team. Actually before I took the decision 2-3 people told me not to take it but I took my decision. In fact, they wanted me to play more," Ashwin said in a video posted on his YouTube channel.


"Rohit Sharma (the then captain) also told me to think about it, Gauti bhai (Gautam Gambhir) also told me to think again. But I didn't talk much about it (retirement) with Ajit Agarkar (chairman of selectors)," he said. "The decision is very personal when it comes to retirement. These are all very individual decisions," he added.

His clarification puts an end to speculation and rumours that he was forced to take the decision by the team management. However, Ashwin earlier stated that he didn't want to be a traveller with the team if he wasn't going to be picked in the playing XI.