"If this leg-spin doesn’t come off, I'll be out" - Ravichandran Ashwin's wife Prithi unveils the former sought mental health counselling after white-ball snub in 2017

Ravichandran Ashwin's wife Prithi recently shed light on the Indian spin all-rounder's bout of mental health struggles and counselling in 2017 after he was left out of the white-ball international squads following the Champions Trophy that year.

Ashwin had a difficult tournament where India lost in the final to Pakistan. After a few weeks, both him and Ravindra Jadeja were dropped and the team management shifted to wrist spinners Kuldeep Yadav and Yuzvendra Chahal. Ashwin was soon seeing trying leggies himself as a variation across formats.

"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 while giving her side of Ashwin's journey to 100 Tests.

Prithi said the team management didn't offer any reason, which made it that much more difficult for him and the family.

"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."

The two wrist-spinners strategy also only worked until the 2019 World Cup, where the team realised that playing both Kuldeep and Chahal affected the batting depth.

This even allowed Ravichandran Ashwin to comeback a couple of times, including in the 2022 T20 World Cup where he had a decent outing. Since then, though, he's out of the team again and only playing the red-ball format and the IPL.

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"Something none of us could help him with" - Prithi on Ravichandran Ashwin's mental health struggles

Prithi said seeing the family situation, Ravichandran Ashwin chose to not open up about his struggles with her and eventually considered counselling.

"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."

Having aged like fine wine in Tests, Ravichandran Ashwin will play his 100th match in the format from Thursday against England in Dharamshala.