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'When I left, I had thoughts on whether I will be able to play': DC's Ashwin reveals struggle with Covid during IPL 2021
Team India and Delhi Capitals spinner R Ashwin opened up about his battle with managing a severe outbreak in his family and IPL 2021 simultaneously.
The ongoing Covid-19 pandemic poses a challenge to both mental and physical health. Be it a common man, a celebrity, or a health care worker, the invisible enemy knows no difference. Even though our cricketers enjoy the status of demigods, they are human after all. Just like anyone else, they also have their own struggles.
Team India player R Ashwin can vouch for that. He recently opened up about his battle with managing a severe outbreak in his family and IPL 2021 simultaneously. Despite signing up for an entire season, the Delhi Capitals spinner decided to return home to take care of his family mid-way through the tournament.
On April 26, off-spinner Ashwin had put out a post on Twitter to inform that he would be taking a break from IPL 2021. He wrote: "I would be taking a break from this years IPL from tomorrow. My family and extended family are putting up a fight against #COVID19 and I want to support them during these tough times."
On Thursday, while speaking in a video blog (vlog) on his YouTube channel, Ashwin shed light on his decision of quitting the IPL.
“Almost everyone from my place had got affected due to Covid. In fact, few of my cousins also got admitted and were serious and they somehow recovered," stated Ashwin.
The stress was so high that the seasoned campaigner wasn't able to get any sleep and turned out for matches without adequate rest.
"I couldn’t sleep for almost 8-9 days. Since I couldn’t sleep, it was really stressful for me. I was playing matches without getting any sleep. And since I found it really taxing, I had to quit IPL and go home midway. In fact, when I left, around that time, I had thoughts on whether I will be able to play cricket thereafter. But still, I did what was required at that point of time.”
The 34-year-old, however, was ready to come back, and just when he thought of it, BCCI indefinitely postponed IPL 2021 due to the Covid-19 crisis in India and multiple positive cases in numerous franchise bio-bubbles.
“I thought there won’t be any cricket for some time. Even IPL got postponed. In between, when people in my house started recovering, I thought of coming back into the IPL and that’s when IPL was called off,” commented Ashwin.
