Ravichandran Ashwin pushes for massive approach shift in IPL franchises for success 

Veteran Indian spinner Ravichandran Ashwin has made a massive call on IPL captaincy ahead of IPL 2024. The season kicks off with CSK facing RCB at Chepauk on March 22.

Rajasthan Royals, who were the inaugural champions of the league start their campaign against Lucknow Super Giants on March 24 in Jaipur. They then play at home on March 28. Next, they take on Mumbai Indians on April 1 at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai followed by their final game of the first phase against RCB at home as well on March 6.

Ashwin has been very successful with the Rajasthan Royals since joining them in IPL 2022. He picked up 12 wickets for the Royals in IPL 2022 and 14 in IPL 2023. The veteran spinner is fresh off a winning Test series against England taking 26 wickets in the series, the most by any bowler in the series.

Ravichandran Ashwin Shares His Take On IPL Captaincy

Recently in his YouTube video, Ashwin spoke about why IPL franchises must choose their captain before the auction. He justified his point keeping the example of KL Rahul. He spoke about how lost Rahul was when led the Punjab Kings as opposed to being the Lucknow Super Giants captain for the last two seasons.

“Even though KL Rahul started off his captaincy phase very averagely at Kings XI, he has gone to LSG, handpicked his own players and shown what he can do.”

“This is something I profess. Even when I became the captain of the Kings XI, the team was already picked, and they decided that I should be the captain after the auction,” Ashwin said on his YouTube channel.

He further asked the franchises to give the captains the freedom to pick and choose players the way they like. This is something similar Gautam Gambhir did at the auction after returning back to KKR.

“But when a captain picks his side during an auction, it is different as he is the one who is going to play with them, take responsibility for their actions and know their fallacies.”

Ashwin further recalled his conversation with KL Rahul when he said that even if the franchise does not do well, it helps the captain to identify his mistakes and come better prepared next season. Rahul has led LSG by example so far taking the team to the knockouts in the last two years.

“The captain will have better control in that place. I also talked to KL about it. He said that in this case, he would realise his mistake if he played around with people with whom he was comfortable. The like-to-like replacements are much more thought out and clear, is what he said.So, has that made a difference in his captaincy stint? Has it been fruitful for KL? Of course” Ashwin concluded.

Rahul has been out of the Indian team since the first Test against England in Hyderabad. He went to London for treatment of his quadriceps injury and will join the franchise for IPL 2024.

Lucknow Super Giants Squad for IPL 2024

KL Rahul (c), Quinton de Kock, Nicholas Pooran, Ayush Badoni, Kyle Mayers, Marcus Stoinis, Deepak Hooda, Devdutt Padikkal, Ravi Bishnoi, Naveen-ul-Haq, Krunal Pandya, Yudhvir Singh, Prerak Mankad, Yash Thakur, Amit Mishra, Mark Wood, Mayank Yadav, Mohsin Khan, K. Gowtham, Shivam Mavi, Arshin Kulkarni, M. Siddharth, Ashton Turner, David Willey, Mohd. Arshad Khan

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