The picturesque HPCA Stadium in Dharamsala is set to welcome Ravichandran Ashwin onto the field for his 100th Test.
One of India's memorable match-winners will play his landmark game when the hosts take on England in the fifth Test. Though Rohit Sharma's side have already won the series 3-1, the final match is far from being just a dead rubber.
Both Ashwin and Jonny Bairstow will play their 100th Test match -- a rare event in the spot.
Ahead of Ashwin's milestone match, Prithi Narayanan reflected on her husband's journey in an engaging interview with Venkatesh Krishna B in The Indian Express newspaper.
'My husband, R Ashwin, is standing on the verge of 100 Tests and our marriage is 98 Tests old. We got married immediately after his debut,' Prithi recalled.
'It was Covid that really got us together. In a way, it was a blessing in disguise because we all suddenly realised that he is probably never going to play cricket again. So what is our life about? That's probably eight-nine years into a marriage when we really lived together under a roof like a normal couple.
'It was during Covid that Ashwin realised that family can also be a part of his life. So he expanded a little bit to give us space which gave him more happiness and stability to deal with a lot of things on the field. That is why he has had a detached attachment over the last few years,' Prithi added.
Talking about Ashwin's landmark 100th Test, Prithi compared the excitement level with Test 100 and his 500th Test scalp.
'Unlike the excitement around his 100th Test, as a family we were very cocooned when he was on 499 wickets. That was because Ashwin did not talk about it.
'During Rajkot, the kids had just got back from school when five minutes later, he got to 500. And soon, all of us were on the phone answering all the congratulatory messages.'
Prithi then opened up about how just after Ashwin's 500th wicket, his mother Chitra Ravichandran collapsed.
'It was then that I heard a sudden scream from aunty as she collapsed, and in no time we were at the hospital. At that point, we had decided not to tell Ashwin because there wasn't good flight connectivity between Chennai and Rajkot.
'So I dialled Cheteshwar Pujara and his family were of great help. And once we found a way out, I called up Ashwin because after the scans, the doctor suggested it was better to have her son around. Over the phone, he sounded so broken and hung up.
'It was a very emotional moment for him to see his mom in the ICU. And after she stabilised, we asked him to rejoin the team. Given his personality, he would never leave a game like that. And he would have an extreme amount of guilt if he didn't win the game for his team.'
