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Ravichandran Ashwin abruptly announced his retirement from international cricket on Wednesday, with two more Tests still left in the India vs Australia Border Gavaskar Trophy. Out of the three Tests so far, Ashwin, a veteran of 106 matches in the longest format, played only in Adelaide as the lone spinner. Washington Sundar was picked for the first Test in Perth as the lone spinner while Ravindra Jadeja was picked for the same role for the third Test in Brisbane. Ashwin's abrupt retirement has got speculations running about when he decided to call it a day at the international level.
Several different versions of Ashwin's decision-making have only added to the confusion.
Former India captain Virat Kohli, a long-time teammate of Ashwin, wrote in a post on X that he got to know on Wednesday that the spin great would retire. "I've played with you for 14 years and when you told me today you're retiring, it made me a bit emotional and the flashbacks of all those years playing together came to me," he said. Hours before that post a video had gone viral on social media which had Kohli hugging Ashwin, possibly after getting to know that he will retire, showing the deep bond that the two share.
While Kohli said he got to know on Wednesday that Ashwin would retire at the end of the third Test, he did not mention whether he had any inkling beforehand about the thought of retirement crossing Ashwin's mind at the start of the series.
At the post-match press conference, after Ashwin had announced his retirement, India captain Rohit Sharma was asked "when he got to know when with whatever conversations he's had" that such a decision was in the offing.
Rohit replied: "I heard this when I came to Perth (venue of the first Test where Ashwin was not picked in the last week of November). Obviously, I was not there for the first three or four days of the Test match. But this was in his mind since then.
"There are obviously a lot of things that went behind it. I am pretty sure Ash, when in position, will be able to answer that. He understands what the team is thinking. He understands what kind of combinations we are thinking.
"When we came here as well, we were not sure about which spinner is going to play. We just wanted to assess and see what kind of conditions we get in front of us. When I arrived in Perth, this was a chat we had. I somehow convinced him to stay for that pink-ball Test match. It just happened so that he felt that 'if I am not needed right now in the series, I am better off saying goodbye to the game'."
To top it all, a report by news agency PTI has claimed that Ashwin had been thinking about retiring after the India vs New Zealand Test series at home, which ended in early November. A report in the Indian Express said that Ashwin informed his family that he was contemplating retirement even before boarding the flight to Australia.
With so many claims, only Ravichandran Ashwin can show some light on when he actually decided to reture.