‘To My All Time Favourite Cricketer’ - After Ashwin's Retirement, Wife Prithi Pens Emotional Tribute on Instagram

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Prithi Narayanan, wife of India's Ravichandran Ashwin, has penned an emotional note to her husband and 'all time favourite cricketer' who announced his retirement from international cricket earlier this week.

Ashwin stunned the cricketing world by calling time on his Indian career moments after the rain-hit fourth Test of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy in Brisbane ended in a draw on Wednesday (December 18).

The seasoned campaigner bowed out of his international career with a total of 765 wickets across formats - 537 of those wickets came in the Test format. While he has quit international cricket, Ashwin has confirmed he will continue playing club cricket, including a longer stint with Chennai Super Kings.

Since the 38-year-old made the announcement, tributes have been pouring in for Ashwin from fans and the cricket fraternity across the world as everyone congragulated the cricketer. Now, the Tamil Nadu cricketer's wife Prithi has taken to social media to share a 'love letter from a fan girl' to her favourite cricketer.

"It has been a blurry two days for me. I have been thinking about what I can say.. Do I put this down as a tribute to my all time favorite cricketer ? Maybe I'll just take the partner angle? Or maybe a love letter from a fan girl? I guess this is a little bit of all of it," Prithi Narayanan wrote in an Instagram post.

"When I saw Ashwins PC, I thought of small and big moments. Many many memories over the last 13-14 years. The big wins, the MOS awards, the quiet silence in our room after an intense game, the sound of the shower running for much longer than usual on some evenings post play....

"The scratch of pencil over paper as he scribbled thoughts down, the constant streaming of footage videos when he is making a game plan, the calm of meditative breathing before leaving for each game, certain songs playing on repeat while he unwinds.

"The times we weeped in joy - after the CT final, after the MCG win, after the Sydney draw, The Gabba win, after making a comeback in T20s...the times we sat in silence and the times when we had our hearts broken."

Later, Prithi said it was an absolute pleasure to learn from the veteran cricketer, starting from not knowing how to pack a kit bag to travelling to stadiums all over the world as she described her journey with Ashwin.

"Dear Ashwin, from not knowing how to put a kit bag together to following you to stadiums all over the world, rooting for you, watching you and learning from you, it has been an absolute pleasure. The world you introduced me to gave me the privilege to watch and enjoy a sport that I love from close quarters," she wrote.

"It also showed me how much passion, hard work and discipline is needed to keep your head above water. And sometimes even that is not enough. I remember us talking about why you, R Ashwin, had to do all of this and a lot more to even stay relevant in the scheme of things. How awards, the best of stats, the POMs, the accolades, the records didn't matter if you didn't sharpen your skill sets constantly and did not put in the work. Sometimes, nothing is enough.

"As you end your wonderful international run, I only want to tell you that it's all good.It is all going to be good.It is time to set the burden of being you down. Live life on your terms, make space for those extra calories, make time for your family, make time to do absolutely nothing, share memes all day, create a new bowling variation, bug our kids out of their minds. Just do it all"