Woke up to see Sachin Tendulkar’s desert-storm innings, reveals Ravichandran Ashwin

04/24/2020

Ravichandran Ashwin has revealed that his dad woke him up in the middle of the night to see Sachin Tendulkar’s desert-storm knock in Sharjah saying there was something special. He added that every time he played alongside Sachin, he felt jitters after growing up watching cricket just for him.

Indian off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin recalled that he woke up to see Sachin’s desert-storm innings in 1998 when the right-hander scored 143 runs off 131 deliveries. He added that it was his dad who woke him up in the middle of the night and recalled his dad’s word ‘something special is happening.’

"My father woke me up in the middle of the night saying that there is something special happening. I woke up and then I saw first it was a sandstorm and then Sachin just took us to the final," he said in an Instagram live, reported TOI.

Sachin’s knock took India to the finals against Australia, with the century going down as one of the iconic innings in the country’s cricketing history. India required 254 runs to book themselves a place in the Coca-Cola final, going past New Zealand. Ashwin added that he feels the jitters playing alongside the Indian batsman after growing up watching him bat.

"So from watching cricket just for him, feeling the jitters whenever he played to actually playing with him, it has been incredible," said Ashwin.