Spin legend Ravichandran Ashwin has announced his retirement from all formats of cricket following the drawn third Test against Australia in Brisbane on Wednesday. At the time of his retirement, the 38-year-old ranks fifth among bowlers and third among all-rounders in the ICC Test rankings.
Ashwin ended a 14-year career in which he played 106 Test matches, the latest of which being the day-night game in Adelaide earlier in the current Border-Gavaskar Trophy. He is the second-highest wicket-taker for India in Test cricket, after Anil Kumble.
With a total score of 537, Ashwin is eighth on the list of all-time Test wicket-takers and is the fastest bowler to reach 250, 300 and 350 Test scalps.
He picked up 37 five-wicket hauls in Test matches, including one on his debut, which is second only to Shane Warne’s record and just short of Muttiah Muralitharan’s 67. Ashwin set a record of 268 left-handers dismissed in Test cricket at the time of his retirement.
He has scored 3503 runs in Test cricket, including six hundreds and 14 fifties, and is a competent batsman down in the order. His four hundred and a fifer in a single Test match is the highest in Indian history, second only to Ian Botham’s five.
Ashwin is one of just three Test all-rounders in history to end with more than 3000 Test runs and 500 wickets. He made his debut for India in the longest format against the West Indies in 2011. He shared the record of 11 Man of the Series wins with Muralitharan and India emerged victorious each time.
In addition to playing 116 one-day matches for India, Ashwin was a member of the 2011 ODI World Cup and 2013 Champions Trophy winning squad. He took 156 wickets at an economy of 4.93 and an average of 33.20. In the format, he also scored 707 runs. Furthermore, he took 72 wickets in the shortest format and had 65 caps in T20Is.
Ashwin earned the Indian government’s prestigious Arjuna Award in 2015. After a stellar 2015–16 season, he was named the ICC Men’s Cricketer of the Year and the Men’s Test Cricketer of the Year in 2016. He was also included in the 2011–20 ICC Test Team.
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