‘Sounded Broken, Took 20-25 Minutes to Process’: How Ashwin Reacted to Mother's Illness During Rajkot Test

The ongoing Test series against England will be forever etched in Ravichandran Ashwin’s memory for multiple reasons. The third fixture in Rajkot saw him becoming only the second Indian bowler to complete 500 Test wickets. But shortly after reaching the milestone, he has to leave the game and rush home to be with her ailing mother. Fortunately, all turned well in his family and he managed to join the team back before the hosts registered their biggest-ever win over England in history.

As Ashwin gears up for his 100^th Test for India, his wife Prithi has revealed what actually made the off-spinner leave the team midway and fly to Chennai from Rajkot.

“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 her column for The Indian Express.

“It was then that I heard a sudden scream from aunty as she collapsed, and 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.

Mrs Aswhin further narrated how she sought help from local star, Cheteswhar Pujara and his family before Indian captain Rohit Sharma, head coach Rahul Dravid and the BCCI extended their full support to the cricketer.

“So, I dialed 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 further mentioned.

A series to remember for Ashwin

Ashwin not only became the second spinner after Kumble to breach the 500 mark but also the second fastest in the world after spin wizard Muttiah Muralitharan to reach this feat. In the next game in Ranchi, he went past Kumble’s tally of 350 scalps to become the bowler with the most Test wickets in India.

And now, Dharamsala waits for him to represent India in the longest format for the 100^th time.