Ravichandran Ashwin is set to play his 100th Test in Dharamsala on March 7 (Thursday). He has performed exceptionally well, like he does in every series for India and also completed 500 wickets in the format during the Rajkot (third) Test. It was a momentous occasion for him to reach the massive landmark on the second day of the match. But things turned sour soon as he had to leave the Test match the same evening and fly back home Chennai due to family emergency.
His wife Prithi Ashwin has recalled the difficult time for the family. The incident happened some time after Ashwin completed the career milestone and his daughters Akhira and Aadhya had witnessed it after coming back from school. They were receiving a lot of congratulatory messages and calls and that is when, Ashwin's mother collapsed. However, at the time, the family decided to not inform Ashwin of the incident and it was only after doctor asked them to do, they called up the cricketer.
"It was then that I heard a sudden scream from aunty as she collapsed, and in no time we were at the hospital," Prithi said. "At that point, we had decided not to tell Ashwin because there wasn’t good flight connectivity between Chennai and Rajkot," Prithi said while speaking to Indian Express. Cheteshwar Pujara who stays in Rajkot also came to the rescue and soon the Indian team management also made sure all the arrangements were done for Ashwin to reach home in time.
"So I dialled Cheteshwar Pujara and his family were of great help," she said. "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," she added. However, Ashwin rejoined the team on the fourth day and bowled in the second innings helping India win the game by a huge margin of 434 runs.
