It was a dramatic turnaround of affairs for the Punjab Kings as Sam Curran pulled off a stunning win against the might of the Rajasthan Royals in a nail-biting thriller. Punjab posted a significant total of 197 on the cards that had a find chase that followed suit as the Royals battled their way through almost ineluctable mazes in order to put a battle for the ages. However, in a surprising manner the Royals resorted to someone who could turn the game around with his fiery brand of striking and that was Ravichandran Ashwin who unfortunately got out for a duck.
For people who believe that this was the first time that Ashwin opened the batting for the first time in is IPL career, actually there is more than meets the eye. This is the second time where Ashwin opted to open the batting for his respective franchises. This story is about the two times where he opened the batting for his IPL team.
#1 CSK vs KKR, IPL 2013, Eden Gardens
Surprisingly a decade ago, Ravichandran Ashwin opened the innings for the first time and once again he didn’t really get a hang of things as he would have wanted. With CSK chasing a modest total of 120, Ashwin walked out in the center to open the proceedings with Michael Hussey.
Ashwin’s survival in the center didn’t really last for long as he could only add 11 runs from 13 balls in the innings but managed to stitch a crucial partnership with Mr. Cricket as the duo added 24 runs for the opening stand.
#2 RR vs PBKS, IPL 2023, Barsapara Stadium
Once again in pretty close contention to the Eden Gardens, the stadium located in Guwahati saw Ravichandran Ashwin walk out to bat in the opening slot. This time, he lasted even shorter as he departed for a duck from only 4 balls but then again Rajasthan Royals has not actually shied away from their experiments ever.
More importantly, the last year’s finalists have a very pretty strong team that starts all the way from the front through Jos Buttler and Sanju Samson. That is why no matter the total, they put up a fight to savour.
