R Ashwin opened the batting in the IPL for the first time in ten years today (April 5), walking out to bat over Jos Buttler in the clash against Punjab Kings in Guwahati.
The off-spinner ended the 2022 IPL with 191 runs at a strike rate of 141.48 occasionally moving up and down the order to suit the Royals’ gameplan on a given day. On Wednesday, fans were in for a shock as the right-hander walked out to open the innings alongside Yashasvi Jaiswal – it was the first time in a decade that Ashwin had performed the role in an IPL game.
Buttler, who scored a 22-ball 54 against SRH earlier this season, was the designated opener on the team sheet, and Ashwin’s promotion, at first, seemed a tactical ploy, with the player having batted at No.3 at times last year. With unconfirmed reports also coming in that Buttler, who had injured his finger while taking a catch in the last over of the first innings, was unfit to open the innings, Ashwin’s promotion seemed to be a gamble from a franchise that has not shied away from shaking things up in the past, with Ashwin himself at the forefront of the moves, including when he tactically retired himself out to leave Riyan Parag, a better striker, with more deliveries to face.
However, Ashwin opening on Wednesday seems like an innovation that went too far. The franchise needed 198 runs to win the game, and the demand was for big hitters up the order. Ashwin had a T20 strike rate of 119.36 before the Punjab game, which sinks to 103.6 in the powerplay. He also has hit only two maximums in the first six overs of the innings, and seeing him walk out was baffling, to say the least. Commentator and former India bowler Murali Karthik described the move as “belying logic” on air.
If Buttler was indeed not ready to open, Rajasthan had the option of sending Sanju Samson or even Devdutt Padikkal in place of the spinner. Samson, who bats in the middle order in the IPL, has a strike rate of 135 while opening, while Padikkal’s strike rate in the first six overs is 122.5. The youngster is not a reliable hitter, however, but then neither is Ashwin. If Rajasthan did not want to meddle with their batting line-up much in an uncontrollable situation and still reserve Samson for the middle-over, Padikkal, who has three T20 tons along with the experience and calibre to play at the top, would have been a better option.
Ashwin was ultimately dismissed for a four-ball duck in the fourth over of the innings, with Kartik saying, “[Promoting Ashwin was a] very strange decision and they’ve been behind the eight ball ever since.”
Though the off-spinner has played a number of handy knocks for India in the longer format, T20s have a different demand, and the franchise’s over-the-top tactic pushed them on the backfoot from the very start.
