Ravichandran Ashwin, the star spinner who has just come back from an abdominal injury is the key for Royal in the Chepauk qualifier against mighty Sunrisers Hyderabad.
CHENNAI: A week before IPL began, Ravichandran Ashwin had a memorable evening at his own Chepauk. Tamil Nadu Cricket Association held a felicitation for the offie’s crossing of 500 Test wickets and playing 100 Tests. Ashwin was quite emotional as he talked about how much this venue means to him.
Chepauk has been everything for Ashwin as a cricketer. In fact, he has bowled match-winning figures of 3-16 against RCB in the final of IPL 2011 for CSK when he got Chris Gayle leg before with an arm ball. However, if there is one more feather that he can add on his already decked cap, it would be winning an IPL trophy for an ‘away’ team at his home ground.
On Friday, the 37-year-old will find out if he will get to play another final against Kolkata Knight Riders with Sunrisers Hyderabad batting line-up and led by Travis Head, Abhishek Sharma and Heinrich Klaasen standing in his way. The pitch at Chepauk will have something for spinners and given that Ravichandran Ashwin played here couple weeks ago should give him fair idea how to go about it.
“In that game, we got only 145 and that was a bit of a shock,” said Ashwin after taking two wickets at 19 runs against Royal Challengers Bangalore in Ahmedabad on Tuesday.
Previously having indifferent start to IPL, Ravichandran Ashwin found form slowly but surely towards the tournament’s backend. He took nine wickets at economy rate of 8.31 in fourteen appearances which must be not so good as expected by best all-time bowling average holder according to himself. He admitted that he was playing with an abdomen injury which prevented him from giving his best in the first few matches.
“It has in a way been a story of two IPLs for me. During the first half of the tournament, my body couldn’t even budge and I sustained an abdominal injury. My intention was to put my body on the line but not always I could make it,” he said.
As the IPL went on, however, Ravichandran Ashwin healed up and the pitches took their toll as well. It made for tracks that turned just a little bit more which benefited spinners like no other person than Ashwin.
Last Wednesday, he played against a high-on-confidence RCB batting line-up at its best and used all his variations – including slower off-breaks, faster off-breaks and drifters – to halt Virat Kohli & Co. at a crucial time during play.
He explained that after Test matches, your body must adjust to T20 cricket. He added that he bowled a lot off-game also because he needed bowling time under his belt.
Also, Yuzvendra Chahal has been there with him who is India’s No. 1 T20 leggie and with the Chepauk pitch affording a bit of turn, this Chennai boy may just give home fans something to cheer about during CSK’s absence from IPL.
