Rajasthan Royals off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin has revealed that he wasn't completely fit when the 17th edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL) got underway. The cash-rich league got underway soon after the last Test between India and England concluded. Ashwin was a major player for the team during the five-match Test series and he admitted that it took him some time to regain his mojo in the shortest format.
Ashwin could take only two wickets in nine matches but has redeemed himself to pick seven scalps in next four outings. His economy of 9 has also come down to 6.81 in the last four matches and clearly, the off-spinnerr is looking in great touch at the business end of IPL 2024. "Truth be told, [in] the first half of the season, my body wasn't moving at all. I felt like I wasn't able to complete my action on many occasions. I had a little bit of an abdomen injury as well. So I couldn't really get through it a lot.
""But having committed to your franchise and the kind of boys we have in the dressing room, I put my body on the line in many of the games. For me, it was more about the rhythm, and [about] hitting the right lengths. You come from Test-match mode, your body also needs to get into it... I mean, I am ageing, so it's not that easy anymore. But as the tournament went on… the amount of repetitions I need for the T20 game is a lot; I actually bowl a lot off the game time as well. I needed that amount of bowling time to get into the rhythm," Ashwin said while speaking to official broadcaster.
The Royals came into this match on the back of four consecutive losses and one washout before this game while RCB were on a six-match winning streak. But things turned around dramatically in the game and Ashwin credited the same to the exuberance of youth and the balance of senior players.
"The greatest strength of our team is the exuberance of youth and the balance of the senior players. Now that Hettie is back and Rovman [Powell] also got a few boundaries away, which is very critical for us, we would be going confident into that game. We've got a decent spin attack; we've got Keshav [Maharaj] sitting outside. If you can get off to a good start against SRH, you never really know," Ashwin added.
