Ravichandran Ashwin has a new job. He will captain and mentor Dublin Guardians in the first season of the European T20 Premier League. The franchise confirmed it.
The move puts him in the same room again, in a different way, as Rahul Dravid. Dravid owns the Dublin franchise. He coached India for close to three years, right through the final stretch of Ashwin’s international career.
Ashwin retired from international cricket in December 2024. He finished with 537 Test wickets, the second highest tally by an Indian bowler behind Anil Kumble. He closed out his IPL career with Chennai Super Kings in August 2025.
He has kept playing since. Sydney Thunder signed him for the Big Bash League last year, but a knee injury ruled him out before a ball was bowled. He is currently with San Francisco Unicorns in Major League Cricket, though he has played just one match there so far.
He has stayed busy off the field too. On his own YouTube show, his own recent comments on how young players develop made it clear he believes patience matters as much as talent when a young cricketer is finding his way into a team.
The ETPL is Europe’s first ICC sanctioned multi country franchise league. Six teams will play across Ireland, Scotland and the Netherlands. Cricket Ireland, Cricket Scotland and the Royal Dutch Cricket Association are running it in partnership.
“A legend, a world-class performer, and a really good captain.” 🙌🏽
Why Rahul Dravid feels @ashwinravi99 leadership and vision will be a massive game-changer for the league as well as its emerging players. pic.twitter.com/VLikSUZMkt
— European T20 Premier League (ETPL) (@etplofficial) July 1, 2026
Dravid explained his approach to ownership back in May, when his involvement with Dublin Guardians first became public.
“But I will certainly be supportive. I think we’re lucky to have signed on someone like Ashwin as a captain and a mentor. And we’ll put a team around him that will allow him to lead the team and run the team in the way that he wants to.”
Rahul Dravid, PTI interview, May 12, 2026
He also said something else at the time. No dugout. No presence at every practice. The team, in his words, belongs to Ashwin.
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Every new owner says this in the beginning. Give the captain the team. Stay out of his way. Trust the process. It is easy to say in May, months before a ball is bowled, when there is no scoreboard yet to argue with.
The real test comes after four straight defeats. That is when an owner who promised silence starts wondering out loud if the batting order needs a change, or if a bowler is being backed too long. It rarely feels like interference to the person doing it. It just feels like a question.
Ashwin knows this relationship from the other side. As a player, he took tactical trust from coaches who backed their own reading of the game over the urge to intervene. Now the positions are reversed. He needs an owner who stays quiet exactly when it is hardest to.
What makes this pairing worth watching is that Dravid has lived both roles himself. He captained India. He coached India. He knows precisely how it feels when someone above you starts questioning a call mid game. He has said clearly he does not want to be that person for Ashwin.
Whether he holds that line the first time Dublin Guardians drop a close game will say more about this partnership than any interview given in May.
Two men in roles that are new to this partnership specifically, betting that the trust built over a decade in Indian cricket carries into a six team league in Europe that nobody has watched yet.
The ETPL runs from August 26 to September 20, with matches in Dublin, Belfast, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Rotterdam and Amsterdam. Every franchise filled out its squad at the player draft on July 2.
The draft delivered the answer. Dublin Guardians’ inaugural squad: Ashwin as captain and mentor, plus Benjamin Calitz, George Dockrell, Matthew Hollard, Craig Young, Noah Croes and Chris Greaves. Six picks across an afternoon in Dublin, the majority of them Irish.
Ashwin talked through the thinking afterward. Nationality, he said, came second to one plain bar.
“Every player you pick must be a playable resource.”
R Ashwin, on Dublin Guardians’ draft strategy, July 2, 2026
It reads like a captain’s answer more than an owner’s. Which, six weeks out from a ball being bowled, is exactly the point of the arrangement Dravid described back in May.
For Ashwin, it is another stop in a retirement that has taken him from Chennai to San Francisco and now to Dublin. Still finding new rooms to lead in.
Sources:
- ETPL captain and mentor confirmation, July 1, 2026 — Outlook India
- Rahul Dravid, PTI interview, May 12, 2026 — SportsTak
- Dublin Guardians squad reveal & Ashwin draft comments, July 2, 2026 — ESPNcricinfo
