Calling it a day is not emotional – Ravichandran Ashwin on his international retirement

It was a roller-coaster day for Indian cricket yesterday as they shared the spoils of the third Test with Australia after the Rain Gods played spoilsport while also staying witness to the farewell of Ravichandran Ashwin from international cricket. A day later, Ashwin returned to India and explained his decision to call it a day from international cricket while also highlighting his future plans.

Speaking to news agency ANI, Ashwin said, “Calling a day is not (emotional). It's emotional for a lot of people. It will be emotional, maybe it will sink in. But for me, it's a great sense of relief and satisfaction...It had been running in my head for a while but it was very instinctive. I felt it on day 4 and called it on day 5...”

Adding further, he underlined his future plans, stating, “I am going to play for CSK and don't be surprised if I try and aspire to play for as long as I can. I don't think Ashwin the cricketer is done, I think Ashwin the Indian cricketer has probably called it time. That's it.”

Playing 287 international matches across all formats of the sport, Ashwin had claimed 765 wickets. Ash was also impressive with the bat in his hands as he had 15 half-centuries and six tons in all the three formats of the game collectively.