Ashwin And…:3 IPL Legends Who Debuted After MS Dhoni And Retired Before Him

Ravichandran Ashwin announced his retirement from Indian cricket on August 27 (Wednesday), which meant that he will not play in the Indian Premier League (IPL) as well, of which he was an important part in the last season (2025) for the Chennai Super Kings (CSK).

With this, Ashwin joined an elite list of players who are bonafide IPL legends, but they not only debuted after the greatest skipper of all time, in probably the entire world of cricket, MS Dhoni, but also retired before him from the IPL. 

Here are three IPL legends who debuted after Dhoni and retired before him from the richest cricket league. For the record, Dhoni has been with the league ever since its inception in 2008.

Kieron Pollard 

Pollard, one team man, who debuted for the Mumbai Indians (MI) in the 2010 IPL season, remained with the blue and gold throughout his stay in the league, playing his last season in 2022, three years ago. 

He announced his retirement from the league at the start of the 2023 season, although he continues to play cricket in leagues around the world, especially in his own home of the West Indies. 

Pollard is an IPL legend beyond doubt, having won five IPL trophies with the Mumbai unit. He has taken 69 wickets and scored 3,412 runs with 16 fifties and a whopping 223 sixes to his account.

Ambati Rayudu 

A man who played for only two franchises throughout his career and has more IPL titles than anyone else to his name. Ambati Rayudu bid goodbye to IPL with a title in his hand in 2023 with CSK. This was his sixth title. Before that, the Andhra Pradesh-born player had won the IPL titles with CSK in 2021 and 2018. 

But it was not CSK, rather MI, where his IPL journey began in the 2010 season alongside Pollard. He stayed at MI for the next eight seasons, winning titles with the team in 2013, 2015 and 2017. 

Rayudu finished as an IPL legend with 4,348 runs to his name. He hit one century and 22 half-centuries along the way.

Ravichandran Ashwin

While Pollard was a one-team man, Rayudu played for only two teams in his career. Ashwin has been a journeyman and will probably remain the only legend to finish as a journeyman in the near future. 

Having started with CSK in the 2009 season, Ashwin remained with them till 2016, considering that Rising Pune Supergiants (RPSG) as a team was an amalgamation of players from CSK due to CSK being banned for two seasons.

He then turned to the Punjab Kings (then Kings XI Punjab) and even captained them before making a whole round of North India with the remaining teams, Delhi Capitals and Rajasthan Royals. 

Ashwin eventually returned home after being bought by CSK in the IPL 2025 mega auction. But an unsatisfactory return and a desire to be a norm-breaker meant that he has bid goodbye to the league with 187 wickets and 833 runs in 221 matches. Much like Rayudu and Pollard, Ashwin will continue to play in leagues around the world.