Ravichandran Ashwin has promoted up the order at number 3 which didn’t fruit results for Rajasthan Royals against Gujarat Titans. R Ashwin was promoted as a pinch hitter at number 3 while chasing 192/4 by Gujarat Titans. Ashwin couldn’t make most out of it as the spinner could only score 8 runs after being promoted before the likes of Sanju Samson, Shimron Hetmyer, Rassi van der Dussen and Riyan Parag. The move harmed the batting order of the Rajasthan Royals which collapsed at 155.
Terming the move as “bizarre”, Sanjay Manjrekar and Ben Cutting slammed the decision. While opining on the move, Manjrekar said, “He was sent as a pinch hitter which was of no need because you do that when the score is near 215 – 220 and when you are doubtful about your ability to score that quickly. But when the likes of Buttler who was going steady, it was a bizarre move.”
Rajasthan Royals lost the match as the batting order couldn’t click enough runs. After losing the match, Samson said, “You can say that (if Gujarat got 10-15 extra runs). But I would like to give credit to their batters. Hardik played a very good inning, they played really well to get that score. If we had wickets in hand this was chasable I feel. We were almost there in terms of run rate, in the powerplay we had a better run rate actually, But we kept losing wickets. Freaky niggle last night in training, definitely missed him (Boult). Hopefully, he will be back soon. He (Hardik) had a really good day today, batted, bowled, and fielded well. I have played enough years in this league to understand that each game is crucial. Very important to learn and come back stronger in the next game. I was doing No. 3 continuously till last season. So we decided to have that flexibility, come down at No. 4 or 5 or wherever the team needs me. Having someone like R Ashwin allows us to do that, Devdutt Padikkal batted 3 in the first three games. So it all depends on the combination we are playing.”
