The IND vs ENG series will be one worth remembering for Indian off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin. The off-spinner has been toppling one milestone after the other in the series. However, Ashwin had a scare during the IND vs ENG 3rd Test. He had to leave the game midway to attend to his ailing mother. Ashwin’s wife recently revealed details about what went down when Ashwin’s mother fell ill.
Ashwin has been breaking records one after the other. In the third Test, he became only the second Indian spinner to take 500 wickets in Tests. In the 4th, Ashwin went past Kumble’s tally of 350 wickets to become the bowler with the most strikes in India. Come the 5th Test, Ashwin will complete his 100th Test.
Ashwin’s mother fell ill during the third Test and Ashwin rushed back to Chennai from Rajkot after Day 1. He rejoined the team on Day 4. Ashwin’s wife Prithi narrated how the situation unfolded at home.
“Unlike the excitement around his 100th Test, as a family we were very cocooned when he was on 499 wickets. That was because Ashwin did not talk about it. During Rajkot, the kids had just got back from school when five minutes later, he got to 500. And soon, all of us were on the phone answering all the congratulatory messages,” Prithi wrote in a column for The Indian Express.
“It was then that I heard a sudden scream from aunty as she collapsed. In no time we were at the hospital. At that point, we had decided not to tell Ashwin because there wasn’t good flight connectivity between Chennai and Rajkot,” She added.
Prtihi explained how, before passing the message to Ashwin, she sought the assistance of Cheteshwar Pujara, whose hometown is Rajkot, to sort things out. BCCI officials arranged Ashwin’s travel and India captain Rohit Sharma, and head coach Rahul Dravid. extended full support.
“So I dialled Cheteshwar Pujara and his family were of great help. And once we found a way out, I called up Ashwin because after the scans, the doctor suggested it was better to have her son around. Over the phone, he sounded so broken and hung up. It took another 20-25 minutes to process what I told him and for him to call back. And thanks to Rohit (Sharma), Rahul bhai (Dravid) and the others in the team and the BCCI — who followed up all the way till he reached here — he got here late at night.
“It was a very emotional moment for him to see his mom in the ICU. And after she stabilised, we asked him to rejoin the team. Given his personality, he would never leave a game like that. And he would have an extreme amount of guilt if he didn’t win the game for his team. Through those couple of days, I realised his yearning for time with his parents is a lot more now and it is coming with age and maturity,” Prithi added.
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