Will the cunning Tamil Nadu leg-spinner Murugan Ashwin go back to the Mumbai Indians or Rajasthan Royals, or will the Lucknow Super Giants swoop him in the IPL 2024 auction?
Very early into his career, Murugan Ashwin put his red-ball career on hold – he’s featured in only 4 first-class matches between 2012 and 2019 – so that he could focus more on his T20 and white-ball career.
And the 33-year-old has so far done justice to his choices and qualities, being one of only a few players from Tamil Nadu to have featured in over 100 T20 matches.
While his designation is of a leg-spinner, Murugan Ashwin has a deadly googly that has castled many a great name in the IPL. Hence, it’s no surprise that champion teams like MI and RR have roped his services in the last two seasons, but he couldn’t get a proper, consistent run in these sides (he featured in only 2 games last season for the Royals as Ashwin and Chahal were the first-choice spinners, while Mumbai Indians in 2021 were a mess which they couldn’t sort out themselves).
Variations and experience: Murugan Ashwin is a complete package as a leg-spinner
In an era where batting in T20 cricket has been touching unprecedented heights and run rates, Murugan’s economy of 8 across 44 matches in the IPL speaks of the variation through which he has kept the batters tied down.
Some of the big-name batters that Murugan has dismissed in the IPL are Shreyas Iyer, Ambati Rayudu, AB de Villiers, Suryakumar Yadav, Yuvraj Singh, and Shubman Gill – batters across generations and styles, all known for their high-quality batsmanship, but holed out against this artful leg-spinner from Tamil Nadu.
In the recent TNPL 2023 season, where pitches were balanced and offered more to the batters than the bowlers, Murugan Ashwin returned with an admirable economy of 7.06.
Another less-talked aspect of Murugan Ashwin has been his top-notch fitness levels: he has not missed a single IPL season since joining MS Dhoni‘s Rising Pune Supergiants in 2016.
A brief on his T20 stats: Murugan Ashwin has taken 101 T20 wickets in his career so far, maintaining a remarkable economy of 7.28 with a jaw-dropping best bowling performance of 3/8!
Now, coming to teams that could target Murugan Ashwin in the IPL 2024 auction.
Punjab Kings could be looking for an Indian backup spinner to Rahul Chahar, and Murugan fits the bill perfectly. Sunrisers Hyderabad have released the pair of Adil Rashid and Akeal Hosein; so an Indian spinner with a vast amount of experience will be on their radar. Also, lest anyone forget, the Lucknow Super Giants might be interested in Murugan as the pitch in Lucknow heavily favors spinners.
