India, May 13 -- The world was not quite ready for Ravichandran Ashwin to announce his retirement in the middle of a Test series last December. And, he was not ready to see his two former teammates - Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli - draw curtains on their Test careers in a space of just five days, especially with the crucial tour of England set to begin in just about a month's time.

Rohit announced his retirement on May 7 via social media. Kohli did the same on Monday on Instagram. The two significant developments came less than a fortnight before the scheduled selection meeting for the tour of England.

Speaking on his YouTube show 'Ash Ki Baat', the former India spinner said he had no idea that two retirement announcements would come in ...