Chennai Super Kings (CSK) off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin admitted that the thought of a three-month IPL grind started taking a toll, prompting him to retire from the league. The champion cricketer surprised many by announcing his IPL retirement on Wednesday, August 27.Ashwin endured a poor 2025 IPL season, finishing with only seven wickets in nine outings at an economy of over nine for the first time in his career. His struggles mirrored those of CSK as the franchise finished last in the standings for the first time in their IPL history.Addressing the reason behind his sudden IPL retirement, Ashwin said on his YouTube channel (4:41):"I thought about playing the IPL next year. But three months of IPL started feeling a bit too long. It's why I am amazed by someone like MS Dhoni. Though he plays only those three months of IPL, as you age, the bandwidth for those three months keeps reducing. It's not easy with travel, playing the match and the recovery process. As you age, recovery reduces. And this travel-match-recovery cycle becomes an emotional rollercoaster."He added:"Someone like me, If I don't sleep by 11 PM, I can't sleep well. And when you play the IPL, you'll sleep only by 2 or 3 AM. So doing that in a three-month span made me think deeply, especially about my health. Then, I thought, 'Should I immediately go for a coaching role?' I am ready for coaching but on my own terms. So I thought I should play more as I still have something left. So, I want to play and explore."Ashwin finished as the IPL's fifth leading wicket-taker with 187 scalps in 221 games at an average of 30.22 and an economy of 7.20."I won't deny that there weren't thoughts of playing around the world" - R AshwinRavichandran Ashwin said thoughts about playing in foreign leagues crossed his mind, leading up to his retirement from the IPL. The Tamil Nadu off-spinner has played the IPL in 16 out of the 18 seasons, with 2008 and 2016 being the lone exclusions."My mind has always been about travelling in paths that are less traveled. But, I don't do it just to not go in some direction. Yet, I won't deny that there weren't thoughts of playing around the world elsewhere. I had a county stint for the first time around 2016 for Worcestershire, followed by Nottingham, Surrey before the Yorkshire stint, which COVID prevented from beginning," said Ashwin (via the aforementioned source).He continued:"Barring my cricket for India and other Indian-cricket related tournaments, I used to enjoy playing Under-10 and 12 in my childhood. I could rekindle such joy when I played county cricket in England. So I realized, given that playing for India or CSK were beyond what I expected, it sucked you into it. But, I want to really enjoy cricket during the final stages of my career. Cricket has given me everything in life because of which I am where I am today."Ashwin played a massive role in CSK's first two titles in 2010 and 2011 and was with the franchise from 2009 to 2015. He moved to other franchises from 2016 before returning to CSK for the 2025 edition.