‘I told my wife that the Australia series could become my last series’- Ravichandran Ashwin believes Border Gavaskar Trophy could have been his last series

Ravichandran Ashwin has been an integral part of Team India’s authority over the years, particularly in Test cricket. However, the journey has not always been easy. There was a time in Ashwin’s life when an injury prompted him to reconsider his profession. In fact, he informed his wife Prithi earlier this year that the Border-Gavaskar Trophy versus Australia at home may be his last.

I’m very proud of what I’ve done in my life: Ravichandran Ashwin

Ashwin, while giving an interview with The Indian Express said, “I’m very proud of what I’ve done in my life not just because of wickets or runs. But how consistently I have been to able to reinvent myself. One thing that really plagues cricketers or anybody as they grow old is insecurity. For me, it’s how cricketers get locked when they get older and when they get experienced; you want to hold on to something so tight, that you eventually end up breaking your own neck.”

The 36-year-old then discussed his knee problems, which led him to modify his bowling action. He said, “When I came back from Bangladesh, I told my wife that the Australia series could become my last series. I used to have some knee issues. I told I am going to change my action because it really got a lot of momentum and with that when I was landing, my knee was buckling a little bit. I hadn’t done enough workload because of the T20 World Cup but I was not just not happy with the way the ball was coming, it was just scrambling a little bit here.”

He further added, “By the second Test (in Bangladesh) it started to pain. It was really swelling up. So just thinking okay, how do I do this? Because I bowled really well for three-four years, right? To change my action, it’s got to be the most stupid and ridiculous thing to do. So I came back and said, listen, there’s a lot of load on the knee, it’s time to change and I’m going to go back to my action that used to bowl in 2013-14.”

Despite being benched from India’s playing XI, Ashwin recently retained his Test no. 1 ranking. Several famous players criticized the Indian cricket management’s choice and questioned Ashwin’s absence. Notably, India lost to Australia in their second WTC Final in 2023. The Australians defeated Rohit Sharma’s squad by a massive 209-run margin and went on to win the prized Test Championship.