Former India cricketer and one of the spin wizards, Ravichandran Ashwin is celebrating his 39th birthday on September 17, 2025. The veteran Indian cricketer, who put down curtains to his international
career last year in December, mid-way through the Border-Gavaskar Trophy 2024-25 in Australia, thus putting an end to his 14-year long illustrious career. While he seemed to call it quits from international cricket, months later in August 2025, he further bid adieu to Indian Premier League (IPL).
As he now remains out of the Indian cricketing scenario, let’s take a recap of what his cricketing journey looked like. Born in Madras (now Chennai) in a household where cricket was family affair, he was introduced to the game by his father, Ravichandran, who was a medium-pace bowler at club level. Although, during his schooling days, he played an an opening batter, but at the age of 18, he shifted his focus to off-spin bowling - a decision which defined his future.
While he continued to pursue his education alongside cricket, but he finally broke into professional cricket in 2006 when he made his Tamil Nadu debut in Ranji Trophy - picking up six wickets in his first class match against Haryana. In February 2007, he made his List A debut, followed by T20 debut just two months later. He then rose to levels as he captained Tamil Nadu to Vijay Hazare title in 2008-09 and again led them to the semi-final in 2015-16. While he continued his blitz with the ball, he continued to shine in the Indian Premier League (IPL) after being picked by Chennai Super Kings (CSK) and simply grew in ranks with each passing day.
R Ashwin’s International Cricket Career
Second most wickets for India: R Ashwin, who ended his international career in December 2024, finished as the second-highest wicket-taker across formats with 765 scalps. He sits only behind Anil Kumble (953). Also Ashwin’s tally of 537 Test wickets for India is also second only to Anil Kumble, who boasts of 619 wickets.
Quickest to 350 Test wickets: Ashwin is the joint-quickest to get t 350 Test wickets mark, alongside Muttiah Muralitharan. However, Ashwin remains the quickest to bag 250 and 300 Test wickets - having done so off just 45 and 54 innings respectively.
Joint-highest Player of the Series awards: The spin all-rounder has won the Player of the Series award 11 times, which makes him the joint-highest alongside the Sri Lanka legend Muttiah Muralitharan.
R Ashwin’s IPL career stats and number
Fourth-most wickets in IPL history: R Ashwin, who retired from the cash-rich league just last month, finished his career as the four-highest wicket-taker in the history of the tournament. He sits only behind Yuzvendra Chahal (221), Bhuvneshwar Kumar (198), Sunil Narine (192) and Piyush Chawla (192).
Most wickets among spinners in powerplay: The spin all-rounder has picked up 50 wickets inside the powerplay in the cash-rich league, is the highest to do some among the spinners. He is followed by Harbhajan Singh, who owns 30 scalps to his name in powerplay.
Third-most wickets in IPL for CSK: Ashwin is one of the three bowlers to pick more than 90 wickets for the five-time champions in IPL. With 97 wickets from 106 matches for the Yellow Army, Ashwin sits only behind Ravindra Jadeja (143) and Dwayne Bravo (140).
