Ashwin wanted a guaranteed place

New Delhi: “If I am not needed right now in the series, I am better off saying goodbye to the game,” R Ashwin told India skipper Rohit Sharma before his surprise inter-national retirement, refusing to let anyone else write his script after 14 years of service to the game. It is understood that retirement was on his mind after the home series against New Zealand, which India shockingly lost 0-3.

He had made it clear to the team management that if he was not guaranteed a place in the playing eleven during the Australia series, he would not even travel Down Under.

India played Washington Sundar ahead of Ashwin in Perth before the veteran returned for the pink ball Test, at Rohit’s insistence. Ravindra Jadeja played in the Brisbane Test and as Rohit stated after the drawn third Test in Gabba, nobody knew how the squad would shape up for the re-maining two games in Melbourne and Sydney.

“There was no nudge from the selection committee. Ashwin is a legend in Indian cricket and he has the right to take his own call,” a senior BCCI source told PTI on condi-tions of anonymity.

The next Test series is in England (June to August) where India might not take along more than two specialist spin-ners who are also batters.

India’s next home Test series is in October-November. So, 10 months is a long time and once this World Test Cham-pionship cycle ends, one is looking at 2027.

Ashwin would have been 40 by then with transition in Indi-an cricket hopefully complete. Ashwin’s decision not to wait till the series against Australia gets over also indicated that the decision to drop him for Washington in the opening game at Perth was what broke the proverbial camel’s back. An astute reader of the game both on and off the field, Ashwin might have gauged what was in store going for-ward and that perhaps made it easier for him to take a call.

The New Zealand series obviously gave the signs when he ended with nine wickets from three games with two played on tailor-made surfaces in Pune and Mumbai. Washington, in comparison, took 12 in Pune, a match in which Ashwin managed five. Rohit wasn’t present in Perth when the play-ing eleven was finalised and it could be safely concluded that it was coach Gautam Gambhir, who had a say on who will be India’s No. 1 off-spinner going forward and the name wasn’t Ashwin. Once he linked up with the team, Rohit had to convince Ashwin to play in Adelaide.