The Ravichandran Ashwin dilemma

Rising Pune Supergiants have played 5 matches and lost 4 of them despite a winning start to their campaign. Their batting unit hasn’t been able to notch those mighty 200+ scores and the bowling has disappointed. But the question of the hour is: ‘Why is Ravichandran Ashwin being under bowled by MS Dhoni?’

In five matches so far, R Ashwin had bowled his full quota of 4 overs only twice. Before the start of the tournament, the off-spinner was touted as the premier bowler in an otherwise weak bowling line-up. But here we are, 5 matches into the tournament and bowlers like Ankit Sharma, Albie Morkel, and Thisara Perera have been considered more reliable than Ashwin to bowl in critical and adverse situations by their skipper. And this is the first reason why RPS is struggling as a bowling unit.

MS Dhoni has not shown enough faith on R Ashwin lately. The off-spinner was not called upon when the RCB’s juggernauts AB de Villiers and Virat Kohli were running away with the game in the death overs. Ankit Sharma was assigned the job of bowling the 17th over against KKR and this decision cost Dhoni and his men 17 runs from a single over and probably the match.

MS Dhoni must not underestimate the value of such a quality bowler. He must acknowledge R Ashwin as the leader of the bowling unit and instill confidence in him as we all know how lethal Ashwin can be with the ball. He has the ability to pull off wins from improbable situations.

Even the statistics go in favor of Ashwin. He had been in great form for India in 2016. He has taken 21 wickets in 15 T20Is at an economy rate of 6.25 while bagging 2 MoM awards and a MoS award.

Ravichandran Ashwin is a proven match-winner and under bowling him will only add to the plethora of troubles that Rising Pune Supergiants have to address.

Written by Asjad Hussain

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