India's star off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin has announced his retirement from international cricket. (IND Vs AUS, 3rd Test Highlights | More Cricket News)
Ashwin, who is the country's second-highest Test wicket-taker after Anil Kumble, made his decision public in the middle of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy, at the conclusion of the third India vs Australia Test that ended in a draw.
The 38-year-old was picked in the playing XI for only one of the first three Tests of the ongoing Australia tour. He took 1 for 53 in the pink-ball match in Adelaide. In the series prior, the 0-3 loss at home to New Zealand, Ashwin had claimed nine wickets at an average of 41.22.
He was not a regular playing member in India's overseas Tests anymore, and the team's next red-ball series is a tour of England, which means Ashwin will be 39 when the next home fixtures are played.
Apart from his bowling, Ashwin compiled 3,503 Test runs with six centuries and 14 fifties, making him one of just 11 all-rounders in the world to have completed the double of 3000 runs and 300 wickets. He also bagged the joint-most Player of the Series awards (11), level with Muttiah Muralitharan.
Ashwin ends his Test career with 537 wickets at an average of 24 in 106 matches, only behind Kumble, who finished with 619 wickets from 132 Tests.
