While Ravi Ashwin is delivering a regular season with the ball – 11 wickets at an economy of 7.14 – it’s his batting that has had a soaring impact on the Rajasthan Royals team which has all the season felt a batter short and thin down the order with Riyan Parag, an inexperienced youngster, slotted in at number 7 followed by four number 11 worthy bowlers.
He’s been regularly promoted up the order this season, employed not just to bunt out the swing of the new ball, but to indeed bat like a proper batsman – either to settle himself in or to take on the bowlers with the field restrictions up.
After taking his side to victory in the run chase of 151 against Chennai Super Kings, scoring 40 runs off 23 balls, Ashwin revealed that he’d been told by the RR management he will be promoted up in the order and had worked hard on his batting.
He had scored 28 off 23 against Lucknow Super Giants, 17 off 9 vs Royal Challengers Bangalore, 21 off 9 vs Mumbai Indians and then 50 off 38 vs Delhi Capitals before another crucial knock vs CSK – a match-winning one that helped him eclipse Moeen Ali, who smashed 93 off 57, for the Man of the Match award.
Ravi Ashwin so far has scored 183 runs at a strike rate of 146; amongst the RR batters, only Buttler, Hetmyer and Samson have a better strike rate than Ashwin.
The celebration of Ashwin is everything. pic.twitter.com/xQwuTpXXoh
— Johns. (@CricCrazyJohns) May 20, 2022
Already, in Test cricket, Ashwin is India’s second greatest all-rounder and arguably the greatest off-spinner. Now, his showing his upped skillset in the shortest format of the game – also making a strong contention for a return to the T20 side.
Renowned commentator Harsha Bhogle took to Twitter to express his admiration for R Ashwin following his heroics with the bat vs CSK.
“What a player! @ashwinravi99. Just gets cricket. Whether test cricket where he is a great or T20 where he is now a champion,” Harsha Bhogle tweeted.
Here, check out Bhogle’s special tweet for Ashwin:
What a player! @ashwinravi99. Just gets cricket. Whether test cricket where he is a great or T20 where he is now a champion.
— Harsha Bhogle (@bhogleharsha) May 20, 2022
With this win, Sanju Samson’s side finished at the second position in the points table and booked a game with the table-toppers Gujarat Titans in Qualifier 1 on May 24 in Kolkata.
