New Delhi, Sep 24 Indian off-spin veteran Ravichandran Ashwin is reportedly set to join Sydney Thunder for the upcoming Big Bash League, becoming the first highest-profile Indian player to feature in the Australian T20 tournament.
On Tuesday, the 39-year-old, who recently retired from international cricket and the IPL, listed himself in the ILT20 auction with a base price of USD 120,000, the highest for any player.
He will join the Thunder after the ILT20 concludes in early January, playing alongside David Warner and Sam Konstas, according to Fox Sports. Earlier this month, Cricket Australia chief executive Todd Greenberg contacted Ashwin, who retired from Tests last year, to gauge his interest in a potential stint at the Big Bash League.
Since Ashwin did not register for this year’s BBL overseas player draft, Cricket Australia will need to grant an exemption for his participation in the tournament, similar to Martin Guptill’s last-minute deal with the Melbourne Renegades in 2022.
After announcing his retirement from international cricket earlier this year, Ashwin also retired from the Indian Premier League, making himself available for franchise-based tournaments outside India.
Last week, Ashwin also signed up for the Hong Kong Sixes tournament, with Cricket Hong Kong making an official announcement regarding the same. Dinesh Karthik will lead the Indian team at the tournament.
In December last year, Ashwin announced his retirement from international cricket after the drawn Brisbane Test in the Border-Gavaskar Trophy series, finishing his career with a total of 765 international wickets from 287 matches. Ashwin also has the honour of having hit the winning runs in the epic run chase against Pakistan at the MCG in the 2022 edition of the ICC Men's T20 World Cup.
To explore playing in various franchise T20 leagues around the world, he retired from the IPL earlier this year. The veteran off-spinner is the fifth-leading wicket-taker of all time with 187 scalps at 30.22 in the IPL.
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