Ravichandran Ashwin’s wife Prithi has recently opened up on their lives and also the veteran spinner who had to look after his mental health and took counselling following his snub from the white-ball squad as well. Notably, the veteran is all set to play his 100th Test match when Team India will take on England in the final Test as well.
“The big turning point in his career was 2017. In March that year, he told me ‘I’m working on this leg-spin. If it doesn’t come off, I will be out’. I didn’t actually put so much thought into what he said because he was adjudged ICC Player of the Year and ICC Bowler of the Year only a few days ago. And in that 2016/17 home season, he had a stellar performance. But in the middle of the year, he was not part of the white-ball team. Those were really hard days for him,” Prithi told The Indian Express ahead of Ashwin’s journey to 100 Tests.
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“He is someone who seeks clarity and because that was not there, it was very hard for him. He didn’t know if he was dropped or rested. If someone told Ashwin, ‘come here, you are not good enough’, he would get out and work on it. But when he was not told why he wasn’t there, I saw him struggling. And at that point, my plate was full. I had two tiny children. So it was hard for him to actually open up to any of us,” she further added.
However, she again stated that Ravichandran Ashwin needed a lot of time to accept the fact that he was not the radar of the management as well. But when he accepted, he tried to be top of his game instead of thinking of a return.
“And he did seek help from outside, going through counselling. There was a tough period and it was something none of us could help him with. And he needed someone who was from the fraternity who could help him. It took him a year to accept that he was not in the scheme of things. After that he was a different person. Not once was he thinking of comebacks, it was always about being on top of his game,” she concluded.
