India all-rounder Ravichandran Ashwin recalled a scary flight experience during India’s tour of Australia 2020-21.
Ravichandran Ashwin looked back at a rather terrifying flight experience during India’s 2020-21 tour of Australia. As the team flew from Melbourne to Sydney for the New Year’s Test, their flight was hit by a thunderstorm, and the journey became miserable.
During the trailer launch of Voot Select’s upcoming documentary ‘Bandon Mein Tha Dum, based on India’s heroic win, Ashwin remembered the woeful ride.
“We were flying to Sydney and the flight encountered a thunderstorm. It was so scary that for a moment, I thought that the flight would never land,” he said.
The off-spinner had also tweeted about the incident then, stating: “Yours Turbulently, Melbourne to Sydney! #ouch #scary.”
Yours Turbulently
Melbourne to Sydney! 🙏🙏 #ouch #scary— Ashwin 🇮🇳 (@ashwinravi99) January 4, 2021
With a troubled back, Ashwin would join Hanuma Vihari, who himself was battling a hamstring tear, for an epic 42.4 overs long rearguard for the sixth wicket on the final day in Sydney to save the Test. That was after Rishabh Pant’s brilliant 118-ball 97 counterattack had ignited hopes of a win in a stiff 407-run chase.
After having gone down by eight wickets in the first Test in Adelaide, which included a bizarre 36 all-out third innings collapse, India bounced back strongly later in the series without the services of regular skipper Virat Kohli.
Ajinkya Rahane scored a match-defining hundred in the Boxing Day Test in Melbourne, and the bowlers, including debutant Mohammed Siraj, put on an all-round show to help the visitors level the series with a resounding eight-wicket win.
By the fourth Test at the Gabba, Brisbane, where Australia hadn’t been defeated since December 1988, India would be without the services of Kohli, Jasprit Bumrah, Umesh Yadav and Ashwin among others, with two Tests old Mohammed Siraj being the most experienced in the bowling unit.
Debutant Washington Sundar and Shardul Thakur scored timely fifties in India’s first innings to keep the team in hunt, before Siraj bagged a maiden five-for and Shardul took four wickets in Australia’s second innings, as India were set a victory target of 328. Playing in just his third Test, Shubhman Gill stroked a fluent 91 to set the foundation, with Cheteshwar Pujara countering Australia’s fierce pace attack to stabilise the innings.
Pant went on to play the decisive knock, stroking an unbeaten 89 to help India secure a seven-wicket win, and with it, a second straight series win Down Under.
