Against SunRisers Hyderabad, ace spinner Ravichandran Ashwin showed why he could have been a handful in the limited-overs series in Australia as he got rid of skipper David Warner with a delivery that he gave air and loop and enticed him into playing a shot in the air on Tuesday evening in Dubai.
The Delhi Capitals off-spinner has been left out of India’s limited-overs squads for the Australia tour, announced on Monday, but has been picked in the Test squad.
Ashwin has taken 27 wickets in seven Test matches in Australia but has four wickets in seven ODIs and five wickets in five T20Is against Australia Down Under. His T20I performance, too, has been impressive as he has turned up with reasonably economical spells. His economy rate in T20Is against Australia in Australia is 7.4.
The off-spinner has done well so far in the Indian Premier League (IPL) picking nine wickets in 10 matches and conceding runs at 8.28 per over. Although his Tuesday’s spell was expensive as he went for 11.66 runs per over as SRH made all Delhi Capitals bowlers pay, he was impressive in previous games.
The 34-year-old bagged two wickets for two runs in one over against Kings XI Punjab on September 20 when he removed Nicholas Pooran with a ball that held its line after two that turned away. And against Rajasthan Royals on October 9, he captured two for 22 in four overs as he got Jos Buttler with a ball that dipped – it showed that he still has skill to perform with the white ball.
Another example was the wicket of Rajasthan Royals captain Steve Smith whom Ashwin deceived with a scrambled seam. The Australian batsman played for the turn but the ball went straight as he gave a catch back to the bowler.
Then, in the October 20 match against Kings XI, Ashwin beat Chris Gayle in the air, bowling him after the left-handed batsman had taken 26 off the previous over from Tushar Deshpande.
Ashwin so far has played 71 Tests, 111 ODIs and 46 T20Is, picking 365, 150 and 52 wickets respectively.
