Ravichandran Ashwin had to leave the Indian cricket team squad midway through the third Test match in Rajkot after his mother collapsed after a headache and was hospitalised in Chennai. The incident happened just after Ashwin became the second India bowler ever to claim 500 wickets in Test cricket after Anil Kumble. In the latest video on his YouTube channel, Ashwin revealed what followed after he received the news of the hospitalisation and how skipper Rohit Sharma’s gesture left him ‘gobsmacked’. He even went on to call Rohit an “outstanding leader” for how he handled the situation.
“I asked how she was and if she was conscious. The doctor apparently told me that she was not in a position to be seen. I started tearing up. I was searching for a flight but I couldn’t get one. The Rajkot airport closes down at 6 as there are no flights from there after 6. I didn’t know what to do. Rohit (Sharma) and Rahul (Dravid) Bhai came to my room and Rohit literally asked me to stop thinking and leave to be there with my family. And he was trying to arrange a charter flight for me,” Ashwin said.
“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 literally 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. The two people there are the only ones that I could talk. 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,” the veteran spinner added.
Ashwin added that it is his ‘good heart’ and empathy that makes Rohit a successful captain and even namedropped MS Dhoni in his high praise for the Indian cricket team captain.
“I’ve played under several captains and leaders, but it is his (Rohit’s) good heart that has made him what he is today – someone with five IPL titles as equal to Dhoni. God doesn’t give it easy. He should get something bigger than all that, which god will give him. In such a selfish society, a man who thinks about someone else’s well being is a rarity. My respect for him grew tremendously after that. I already had respect for him as a leader, he backs a player without question until the last moment. It’s not an easy thing. Even Dhoni does that. But he takes 10 steps more,” Ashwin concluded.
