As the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2026 is underway, one of the most established spinners in world cricket, Ravichandran Ashwin, revealed why he drew curtains on his career in the league.
Speaking on his YouTube channel, `Ash Ki Baat`, the former cricketer revealed that it was mentally disturbing and very painful for him, following which he announced his retirement from the cash-rich league.
“I recently spent a disappointing season with CSK, it was a disappointing season for me personally. Honestly, in my mind, I could have played more, but I quit because emotionally, I just did not have the bandwidth to play while managing everything else,” he said.
“I don`t want to go there, it`s mentally disturbing. It was very painful for me. I don`t want to go there. I discussed a little, then I said, I started in Chennai, I am finishing in my hometown, it`s fine. I decided to retire as it saved them the trouble of having to decide whether to retain me or release me. They also saved Rs 10 crore purse with me going,” added Ashwin.
He represented Chennai Super Kings (CSK) for most of his career in the league. In the ongoing edition, Chennai suffered its third consecutive loss.
Recently, the Super Kings suffered a loss by 43 runs against Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) at the M. Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru.
With this, they are placed in the 10th position on the points table with a net run rate (NRR) of -2.517. On the back of three consecutive losses, CSK will now gear up to lock horns with Delhi Capitals (DC) on April 11 at the MA Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai.
IPL 2026, Chennai Super Kings vs Delhi Capitals: Full Squads
Chennai Super Kings: Ruturaj Gaikwad (C), MS Dhoni (WK), Sanju Samson (WK), Dewald Brevis, Ayush Mhatre, Kartik Sharma, Sarfaraz Khan, Urvil Patel, Anshul Kamboj, Jamie Overton, Ramakrishna Ghosh, Prashant Veer, Matthew Short, Aman Khan, Zak Foulkes, Shivam Dube, Khaleel Ahmed, Noor Ahmad, Mukesh Choudhary, Nathan Ellis, Shreyas Gopal, Gurjapneet Singh, Akeal Hosein, Matt Henry, Rahul Chahar.
Delhi Capitals: David Miller, Mitchell Starc, Dushmantha Chameera, KL Rahul (WK), Karun Nair, Axar Patel (C), Ben Duckett (WK), Kuldeep Yadav, Nitish Rana, Kyle Jamieson, Lungi Ngidi, T. Natarajan, Mukesh Kumar, Pathum Nissanka, Ajay Mandal, Prithvi Shaw, Ashutosh Sharma, Auqib Nabi, Sameer Rizvi, Tristan Stubbs, Abhishek Porel (WK), Vipraj Nigam, Tripurana Vijay, Sahil Parakh, Madhav Tiwari.
(With PTI Inputs)
