Ravichandran Ashwin’s wife describes the battling experience her husband had to face prior to Day 5 heroics

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Ashwin
Image Courtesy: PTI

Team India are all set to take on Australia in the fourth and final Test in Brisbane from January 15. However, ahead of the decider game, they have been dealing with injuries too and in recent times, all-rounder Ravindra Jadeja has been ruled out with a broken thump whereas pace bowler Jasprit Bumrah has been suffering from an abdominal injury. However, these are not enough as their veteran spinner Ravichandran Ashwin too was in pain during the final day of the third Test.

Ashwin

It was Ashwin and Hanuma Vihari who took the game to a draw in the third Test against Australia in Sydney. But, Ashwin had been battling severe back pain throughout the series, according to his wife Prithi Narayanan. She had tweeted right after India’s great session at the Sydney Cricket Ground where she said that Ashwin “could not stand up straight” in the morning of the final day of the Sydney Test. She further shared how they dealt with the situation.

“By the time I woke up in the morning, his pain was really bad. ‘I had to crawl to the physio room,’ he said. Luckily, that was the next room. He couldn’t bend, straighten, or get up after sitting. I was shocked,” wrote Prithi in a column for The Indian Express. “I had not seen him like this before.”

When she asked Ashwin how he would manage the batting, the bravest heart answered he will manage despite having said he doesn’t have any idea how. However, she also added that she was half-expecting a call within a few hours from someone in the team that Ashwin had been taken to hospital for his health condition.

“Over the years, I have seen him handle pain and know he has a high threshold for it, but I had never seen him like this. He was crawling on the floor. He couldn’t get up or bend down,” Prithi wrote.

However, for the world, Ashwin’s pain came in the limelight only after the Test but it was Prithi, who saw him struggling from the fourth evening of the game.

“When he walks into the room, he usually has just a few minutes before he rushes to the physio or masseur table and then meetings if any, and comes back late. ‘Are you fine, physically?’ I asked him and he shot back, ‘Didn’t you see me bowl?!’ and said he felt he had a tweak in the back that was beginning to hurt. He felt during warm-ups that morning that he stepped awkwardly and did something to his back,” she further added.

Notably, Ashwin batted for more than three hours, faced 128 balls across two sessions that too with a tweaked back to remain unbeaten for 39 alongside Hanuma Vihari (23 not out off 161 balls) to help Team India save the Test and keep the hope of a series win after the series is levelled at 1-1.

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