'For My Favourite Cricketer': Prithi Narayanan Pens Tribute For Husband R Ashwin

Ravichandran Ashwin’s retirement from international cricket has left fans and loved ones reflecting on his illustrious career. Known for being one of the finest cricketers of his generation, Ashwin has often credited his wife, Prithi Narayanan, and their two daughters for being his pillars of strength.

As R Ashwin Retires Wife Prithi Narayanan Shares An Emotional Tribute

As Ashwin announced his decision to retire with two matches left in the Border Gavaskar Trophy, Prithi took to Instagram to pen a heartfelt post, offering a glimpse of their life off the pitch. "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 favourite cricketer? Maybe I'll just take the partner angle? Or maybe a love letter from a fangirl? I guess this is a little bit of all of it," she wrote.

Take a look at her post.

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A post shared by 𝒫𝓇𝒾𝓉𝒽𝒾 𝒜𝓈𝒽𝓌𝒾𝓃 (@prithinarayanan)

All About R Ashwin’s Wife Prithi Narayanan and Their Beautiful Love Story

Ravichandran Ashwin and his wife, Prithi Narayanan, share a heartwarming love story that began in their middle school days at Padma Seshadri Bala Bhavan School in Chennai. Prithi, during a candid chat on Jio Cinema, reminisced about their childhood connection, saying, "He had a massive crush on me, and the whole school knew it."

Though Ashwin later switched schools to focus on cricket, their bond remained intact through birthdays and neighbourhood interactions. Prithi recalled, "He moved schools to pursue cricket, and we were in touch on and off, birthdays, neighbourhoods, like that." Their paths crossed again as adults when Prithi was working with Chennai Super Kings (CSK). She noted the moment she saw him differently, "I met him again when I was handling CSK's account, and suddenly I saw him as a six-footer. We knew each other from Grade 7."

In a unique proposal, Ashwin took Prithi to a cricket ground and expressed his feelings openly: "I've kinda liked you all my life, and it hasn't changed over 10 years. We're adults, and let's try this." The couple married in 2011 and now share a happy life with their two children.

Who Is Prithi Narayanan?

Prithi Narayanan, a cricket aficionado, was born on May 26, 1988 and grew up in Chennai. She is the Director at GenNext Cricket Institute, according to her LinkedIn. She holds a B.Tech degree in Information Technology from the esteemed SRM University. 

In an earlier interview with Jio Cinema, Narayanan said that she went to the same middle school as R Ashwin, where the cricketer confessed to having a crush on her in Grade 7. She disclosed that the whole school knew about his feelings for her. Ashwin changed schools to full-fledged pursue cricket but the duo stayed in touch on and off. 

Narayanan was working in the management department of the Indian Premier League team Chennai Super Kings when she reunited with Ashwin and their bond grew stronger. Knowing their shared love for cricket, Ashwin took Narayanan to a cricket ground to confess his affection for her. 

Prithi Narayanan and R Ashwin are childhood friends-turned-lovers, who got married in a traditional Tamil setting in November 2011. While Narayanan knew the kind of public attention their marriage came with, the first shocker she faced in the limelight was on their wedding day. "I remember this instance when he was tying the wedding thaali (necklace), all I could see were photographers around both of us and we couldn’t spot the one we had hired for the wedding. It was the first taste of what it meant to be around a cricketer all the time," she said.

When Prithi Narayanan Got Candid About Ashwin's Career

In March 2024, Prithi Narayanan shared an undisclosed side to their relationship, detailing the struggles of dealing with the limelight. In a column for The Indian Express, Narayanan opened up about the challenging early days of their relationship getting used to Aswhin's lifestyle and all the public attention. She also spoke about the 12 years of their marriage, describing the hardships she faced in supporting the sportsperson in his career. 

"I was very unsettled the first few years, not in the marriage but in how much this profession was taking away from what I could be building with him," Narayanan wrote in the column. "It took time to understand that if you want to succeed at the highest level, it always comes at a cost, either not spending time with his parents, or with his wife and children."

Opening up about how she felt unprepared for R Ashwin's professional commitments, Prithi Narayanan wrote, "I don’t have a problem putting him first. But I was very unsettled the first few years, not in the marriage but in how much this profession was taking away from what I could be building with him. First, it was surprise, then shock, then denial. Then it was pure misery. When we had children, I was sacrificing all our time."

Narayanan also talked about balancing her self-identity with the popular cricketer's media attention. "I didn’t want the attention that came with this. I was particular about having my identity and didn’t want to get into the web where I had no control over what was happening around me," she wrote. She added that the couple bonded during the COVID-19 pandemic when the lockdown brought them together.

Narayanan said that it took her a lot of time and patience to get around Ashwin's lifestyle. "This sport took over his life from the time he was seven and I took time to realise that sometimes they don’t know anything else. There is no fuel in the vehicle to put into another relationship or another presence in your life," she wrote.