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Veteran India spinner Ravichandran Ashwin felt the Border-Gavaskar Trophy could become his last series. The 36-year-old had been suffering from a knee injury, and he even told his wife, Prithi Narayanan, that his career is over and the series would be his last. Ashwin also said that he is proud of what he has accomplished in his life, and it’s not because of the accolades but how he has, time and again, reinvented himself.
In an interview with The Indian Express, the Chennai-born cricketer 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.” Ashwin also talked about how cricketers get insecure due to their age. He said, “One thing that really plagues cricketers or anybody as they grow old is insecurity. For me, it's how cricketers get locked in 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.”
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Concerning his knee, Ashwin said that when he came back from Bangladesh, he told his wife that the Border-Gavaskar Trophy would be his last series. He added, "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.”
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Ashwin recently retained his Test no.1 spot despite being benched from India’s playing XI. Several legendary cricketers also slammed Indian cricket management on their decision and questioned Ashwin’s absence. Opening up on the same, he said, “I felt happy they thought I was good enough to play. But the fact of the matter is, I couldn’t get an opportunity or the world title. I knew I was going to be left out 48 hours before. So for me, my entire goal was to make sure I can contribute to the guys and help us win a title because I played a part in it.”
Notably, India went down to Australia in their second consecutive World Test Championship Final 2023. The Aussies took down the Rohit Sharma's side by a whopping 209-run defeat and went on to lift the prestigious ICC Test mace.