Veteran Indian spinner Ravichandran Ashwin dropped a bomb as he decided to hang his boots in the middle of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy. Following the conclusion of the third Test in Brisbane, Ashwin announced his decision to quit international cricket, leaving fans and pundits befuddled over what transpired in the dressing room. While Ashwin hasn’t himself explained, in detail, the acts that prompted him to take such a big call, former India bowling coach Bharat Arun feels it was the team management’s decision to play Washington Sundar over him in the first Test at Perth.

“In the very first Test of the tour, a big star like Ravichandran Ashwin was snubbed for a youngster like Washington Sundar. That would certainly have hurt him,” Bharat Arun said in a chat with former India cricketer Subramaniam Badrinath.

Badrinath also shared his views in the conversation, saying Ashwin never took offense when Ravindra Jadeja was picked ahead of him in overseas tours but the Sundar decision is likely to have hurt him.

“In the past, Ravindra Jadeja played ahead of Ashwin a lot in overseas tours but I don’t think Ashwin was affected by that. But I feel that this time around, he might have been hurt by being pushed behind Sundar in the pecking order,” Badrinath said.

“Jadeja was slightly ahead of Ashwin on batting, and he was a left-hander as well. I myself have, at times, personally explained to Ashwin the reason for picking Jadeja over him. Ashwin took it [the reasoning] very well, too,” Arun answered.

Ashwin did feature in the pink-ball Test at Adelaide but was dropped again in Brisbane, for which India skipper Rohit Sharma played a big role in keeping the spinner with the team as he wnated to retire after the Perth match. But, Ashwin was dropped again in Brisbane, prompting to make the big call.

“But here, after having played so much top-level cricket, the tour got off to a false start for him. I think he would have been fine had they dropped him after two consecutive failures. But they dropped him for the very first Test, then played him in a pink-ball Test, and then dropped him again for the third Test.”

“After this sequence of events, Ashwin might have thought to himself that it’s best to move on.”