R Ashwin Reveals What Made Him Contemplate Retirement: "When I Didn't Start In Perth..."

Former Indian cricket team spinner R Ashwin finally revealed what led to his international retirement midway through the Border-Gavaskar Trophy in Australia. Ashwin decided to announce his retirement after the third Test match at The Gabba - a decision that took the cricketing world by surprise. During an interaction on the Mike Testing 1, 2, 3' podcast, Ashwin said that he wanted to retire after the Test match against Bangladesh in Chennai where he scored a century and claimed a six-wicket haul. However, he decided to prolong his career due to his good form and sensational run of results.

“To be very honest, I wanted to do it after my 100th Test. And then I thought, Ok, let me give it a go in the home season. Because, I mean, you're playing well, and you're getting wickets, you're making runs," Ashwin told CSK batting coach Michael Hussey in the podcast.

"I thought it does make sense to play a bit. I was having a lot of fun, but the whole hard yards that I had to put through to put myself in the park again, physically and mentally, one of the most important things that was pulling me down was the family time," he added.

Ashwin further claimed that not playing the first Test match against Australia in Perth took an emotional toll on him and that also indirectly led to him considering retirement from international cricket.

"I thought I'd probably close off with the Chennai Test here. I ended up getting a six-wicket haul and a hundred. So it's very tough to quit when you're doing very well. So, I went on with the series, and we lost against New Zealand. So, one after the other, it was just building up. And then I thought, okay, let me go to Australia. Let me see how this goes. Because the last time I was in Australia, I had a great, great tour," said Ashwin.

"And when I didn't start in Perth, it was like, okay, this whole circle keeps going again. People add very little value to what you're going through emotionally. They don't really consider that because your emotions are yours, and it doesn't matter to anybody else. So I had been contemplating that, and then I thought, okay, maybe it is time," he added.