IPL 2018: We Have A Problem With Our Batting: Ravichandran Ashwin

Ravichandran Ashwin came out with a scathing assessment of his side’s batting after the Kings XI Punjab were thrashed by ten wickets by Royal Challengers Bangalore on Monday. It was one of the worst performance from the Ashwin-led side this year as their recent downward slide continued.

Asked to bat first, the Kings XI were all out for just 88 on a Indore pitch where more 459 runs were scored just a couple of days back. As usual, KL Rahul and Chris Gayle made a bright start. Rahul hit three sixes while Gayle hit four fours as the duo added 36 runs for the first wicket. However, Kings XI’s innings was derailed once Umesh Yadav dismissed both the openers inside an over. The middle-order once again failed to rise to the occasion and the hosts were bundled up for a below par total. In reply, the Royal Challengers chased down the total in just 8.1 overs without losing a wicket.

Speaking after the heavy loss, Ashwin did not beat around the bush in his assessment of his side’s performance. The Kings XI had started the season on a stunning note, winning 5 of their first seven games. However, they have now lost 4 of their last 5 games.

“We have a problem with our batting,” said Ashwin. “We aren’t one of the top champion sides to be very honest, we are one of those sides that punched above our weight in the first half of the competition. To be very precise, I did expect to find ourselves in such a situation, but not this much; probably thought we might have won one or two more games and probably reached 14 or 16 points,” he added.

Prior to the latest defeat, Kolkata Knight Riders had thrashed them by 31 runs. Two heavy defeats have put the Ashwin-led side out of the top four. The skipper said that not playing according to the situation is the reason behind the two big defeats.

“Not playing according to the situation,” he said. “Defending on this ground isn’t easy. We perhaps made the mistake of trying to score more than the par score and thereby ended up losing wickets,” the 31-year old added.

The road ahead is only going to get tougher for Kings XI. They will finish the league campaign with two tough away matches – One against Mumbai Indians and the other against Chennai Super Kings. Ashwin is hopeful that the overseas batsmen would deliver on the friendly Mumbai track.

“We have lost three on the bounce now, don’t think we can lose four on the bounce. The next match is in Mumbai which has plenty of bounce and generally the foreign batsmen enjoy playing in those conditions, so hopefully our foreign batsmen will also come good,” he said.

Kings XI will next take on Mumbai Indians on Wednesday.