IPL 2021: Ravichandran Ashwin Should Stick To His Strength Of Off-Spin In White-Ball Cricket, Feels Sanjay Manjrekar

Sanjay Manjrekar feels that Ravichandran Ashwin is not using his main strength in while-ball cricket which affects his performance in T20s. The veteran bowler turned out to be an expensive bowler during Chennai Super Kings vs Delhi Capitals game in IPL 2021 on Saturday. In his four overs, Ashwin gave away 47 runs with only 1 wicket of Moeen Ali.

Ashwin had the second-worst economy rate in the match for Delhi Capitals. The right-arm spinner was seen using different kinds of variations in the match, however, none of that worked in his favour. Former Indian cricketer Sanjay Manjrekar believes that Ashwin should stick to his strength which is bowling off-spin in white-ball cricket.

Ravichandran Ashwin Only Thinking About Not Getting Hit: Sanjay Manjrekar

Manjrekar stated that Ashwin is only thinking about not getting hit due to which he is focussing on bowling a lot of variations.

“I think Ravichandran Ashwin, when he gets into this white-ball circle, he’s only thinking about not getting hit and he thinks the only way to escape punishment is to have all these kinds of variations and he goes away from his main strength which is him being this wonderful off-spinner. So in return, you don’t get much return off the pitch because he’s not bowling any turning deliveries,” said Sanjay Manjrekar.

Giving the example of another Indian spinner Amit Mishra, Manjrekar explained how he sticks to his strength in both Test and T20 cricket. He also mentioned that he doesn’t like the different variations that Ravichandran Ashwin uses in while-ball cricket.

“For Amit Mishra, there isn’t much change in how he bowls in Test and T20 cricket. He sticks to his strength and his intent is to get the ball to turn. Ashwin doesn’t bowl the off-spinner! He hardly bowls the off-spinner in white-ball cricket.

“In Test matches, that’s his main delivery. In white-ball cricket, there’s a lot of other stuff, the pause and the round-arm delivery and stuff like that which I don’t really like too much,” Sanjay Manjrekar added.

Meanwhile, Delhi Capitals comfortably managed to defeat Chennai Super Kings at Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai in their first match of IPL 2021. Chennai Super Kings scored 188-7 after being asked to bat first by DC skipper Rishabh Pant. For Delhi Capitals, openers Shikhar Dhawan (85) and Prithvi Shaw (72) scored half-centuries and also managed a 138-run stand. Delhi Capitals won the match by 7 wickets after chasing the target in 18.4 overs.