Former Team India spinner Ravichandran Ashwin said that stepping away from the game was his personal decision and no one forced him to retire midway into the Test tour of Australia last year.
The former spinner took the cricket fraternity by surprise by announcing retirement after the third Test match of the 2024-25 Border-Gavaskar Trophy in Brisbane last year.
Speaking about his decision, Ashwin said that two to three people had asked him not to retire, but he stayed firm on his decision.
“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,” he said on his YouTube channel.
He then said that the skipper Rohit Sharma and head coach Gautam Gambhir had asked him to rethink about his call.
“Rohit Sharma also told me to think about it, Gauti bhai also told me to think again. But I didn`t talk much about it (retirement) with Ajit Agarkar (chairman of selectors). The decision is very personal when it comes to retirement. These are all very individual decisions,” added Ashwin.
Both Rohit and Virat Kohli, who have retired from Test and T20 cricket, have been included for the upcoming three ODIs against Australia.
But Rohit, who was the ODI skipper, has been replaced by Shubman Gill in the leadership role.
“Virat Kohli is a bonafide ODI legend. The way he and Rohit batted in 2023 World Cup, they have nothing to prove. I really hope that the conversation happened. Whatever needs to be discussed with Virat and Rohit Sharma must have happened. There should clear communication with them,” Ashwin said.
The first ODI match between India and Australia is scheduled to be played on October 19 at the Optus Stadium in Perth.
India`s squad for the ODI series against Australia: Shubman Gill (Captain), Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer (VC), Axar Patel, KL Rahul (WK), Nitish Kumar Reddy, Washington Sundar, Kuldeep Yadav, Harshit Rana, Mohammed Siraj, Arshdeep Singh, Prasidh Krishna, Dhruv Jurel (WK), Yashasvi Jaiswal.
(With PTI Inputs)