On Wednesday, Ravichandran Ashwin bowled the final over of the second Qualifier for the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2024, which saw Kolkata Knight Riders defeat Delhi Capitals by three wickets in a thrilling last over finish. Ashwin was given a target of seven runs to defend, and he took the game to the wire, picking up two wickets in two balls. On the penultimate delivery of the match, Rahul Tripathi backed himself and smashed Ashwin over long-off to finish the game and send KKR through to the final. After the game, former India batter Sanjay Manjrekar analysed Ashwin’s recent T20 performances and made the bold statement that he would never have someone like Ashwin in his team.
“We’ve spent far too much time discussing Ashwin. Ashwin, the T20 bowler, isn’t a big player in any team. If you want Ashwin to change, I don’t believe it will happen. He’s been like this for the past five and a half years. I understand why we focus on Ashwin in Test matches where he performs admirably. It was a travesty that he did not play a single Test match in England “Manjrekar stated this during the live broadcast of ESPNCricinfo’s T20 Time Out.
Manjrekar went on to say that if he is playing on turning pitches, he would prefer a bowler who can take wickets rather than a bowler who is only responsible for containing runs.
“However, when it comes to the IPL and Twenty20 cricket, I believe that Ashwin has demonstrated over the last five years that he bowls exactly the same and I would never have someone like Ashwin in my team because if I’ve got turning pitches, I expect people like Varun Chakravarthy or Sunil Narine or (Yuzvendra) Chahal and the way they do their job, they get you wickets,” Manjrekar continued.
The author concluded, “Ashwin has not been a wicket taker in Twenty20 cricket for a long time, and I don’t believe a franchise would want Ashwin in the team solely to keep the runs down.”
When asked about Ashwin’s conventional off-spin, former South African paceman Dale Steyn said he would have liked to see him bowl a lot more of it, which is something that he does when playing Test cricket.
Steyn stated that while Ashwin may have attempted to trick the batsmen and bowl as the situation demanded in the final over of Qualifier 2, he would have preferred to see the spinner attempt to turn the ball a great deal more in the final over.
