'Saw an outstanding leader in Rohit Sharma that day': R Ashwin recalls India captain's heart-warming gesture
Ravichandran Ashwin showered praises on India captain Rohit Sharma who supported the spinner when he left Rajkot Test midway due to a family emergency.
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Ravichandran Ashwin has become an important asset for Team India and it was quite evident in the recently-concluded England series. Creating a memorable Test series against England, Ashwin made his 100th Test appearance and also succeeded in breaching the 500-wicket mark in this format. Despite the historic milestones, the series also saw Ashwin face a family emergency and leave the squad midway through the Rajkot Test. Ashwin had to return to Chennai to attend to his mother who was in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) at a hospital in Chennai. Speaking about the same, the ace spinner narrated how Indian skipper Rohit Sharma helped him in tackling the situation.
Ashwin was a bit surprised as no one from his family contacted him after his milestone. "After being unable to reach my parents, I finally got hold of my wife on the phone. Her voice was breaking. I told her I was just about to get into the shower, and she asked me to go somewhere alone, away from my team-mates. She said that my mother had collapsed after a severe headache."
"I just blanked out. I don't remember what I did, but I was crying," Ashwin said. "I didn't know what to ask her. I didn't want anyone to see me cry - it was an instinctive reaction. I just sat alone in my room, not knowing what to do.
"On one hand, I knew I had to go back home, but there was also the thinking of how can I let my teammates down. I couldn't strike that balance. I didn't know what to tell the coach or captain. I was in the XI, and if I go home now, we'd be left with only 10 players, giving England the advantage. But I was also just thinking about my mother. And when was the last time I spoke to her? In my mind, I knew I had to go back home and see her, but the doctors were informing us that nobody was allowed in to meet her."
It was at this point of time, Ashwin said, that Rohit and head coach Rahul Dravid came into the dressing room, and made his decision a straightforward one. "I think since I wasn't answering my phone, my wife must have called Rohit and Dravid to tell them the news. Rohit came in, saw me thinking, and just said, 'what are you doing? You need to leave right away. Please just pack your bags and go'".
The next challenge was finding a quick way back home, but with no flights to Chennai scheduled till the next morning, Ashwin got help from an unexpected source. "I must say a big thank you to Cheteshwar Pujara as well, who spoke to a lot of people and arranged for a chartered flight for me.
“Kamlesh, the team physio, is a very good friend of mine. Rohit told him to fly with me to Chennai and be with me but I convinced him to stay back. When I went down, the security and Kamlesh were already there, waiting. Kamlesh got a call from Rohit on our ride towards the airport, checking up on me and asking him to be with me during this tough time. It was 9:30 at night. I was just gobsmacked. I cannot even think about it,” Ashwin recalled while speaking on his YouTube channel.
“The two people there are the only ones that I could talk to. What if nobody was there? I just thought, even if I were a captain, I’d tell my players to go back home. No second thoughts about it. But will I be calling people to check up on him? I don’t know. Unbelievable. I saw an outstanding leader in Rohit Sharma that day,” he added.
Following the family emergency, Ashwin made a roaring comeback and capped off the Test series on a promising note. Ashwin achieved a historic feat by registering the most number of five-wicket hauls for India in the history of Test cricket. The 37-year-old claimed his 36th five-wicket haul on the third day of the fifth Test, played in Dharamsala.
Despite conceding a defeat in the Test series opener, the Indian cricket team scripted a resounding comeback to win the series. Team India won four games on the trot to clinch the five-match Test series 4-1.