Was Ravichandran Ashwin angry over BGT drop? Here is what Rohit Sharma meant in his speech

Leaving his millions of fans in shock, Ravichandran Ashwin announced his retirement from international cricket with immediate effect soon after the third Test of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy against Australia at the Gabba in Brisbane which ended in a draw.

Following the cricketer’s retirement speech, Indian skipper Rohit Sharma spoke a hearty tribute to the spin maestro. However, a line from his post-match conference is doing the rounds with many netizens suspecting that Ashwin was angry over him playing only one of the three BGT tests so far.

The line that Sharma mentioned stated, “It just happened so that if you know where he felt that, 'if I'm not needed right now in the series, I'm better off.”

Several Indian team fans pointed out on social media sites like X (formerly Twitter) that the line does seem to imply that the legendary spinner probably felt it was time to retire since he was no longer needed.

Incidentally, Ashwin only played in the second Test of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy, where he scalped the wicket of Mitchell Marsh, his final dismissal in international cricket, and also scored 22 and 7 in his two innings with the bat. Players like Ravindra Jadeja came up to substitute him in the other two matches. Several online users singled this out as the spinner’s reason to be angry and want to retire.

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However, in all likelihood, this was not the case, and Rohit Sharma’s lines were misconstrued. The Indian skipper simply was explaining Ashwin's thought process regarding his retirement.

Ashwin felt that if he was not needed for the current series, it was a good time for him to retire. He perhaps believed that he had offered his best to Indian cricket and it was time to move on.

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Sharma emphasized this, respecting Ashwin's decision and understanding his perspective. The Indian captain also issued a follow-up to these lines with, “keeping Ash in particularly in mind, giving him that respect that this if this is what he thinks, we should allow him to think that way and we should all stand by.”