If one Ashwin does not do it, the other Ashwin will. This seems to be captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni's new mantra. Dhoni has the luxury of falling back upon either of the Ashwins, or even both, for IPL debutants Rising Pune Supergiants, who got off to a winning start in a disappointing opening match against Mumbai Indians on Saturday.
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From the outset, it may look that the seasoned Ravichandran Ashwin was completely outperformed by his inexperienced leg-spinner Murugan Ashwin, whose T20 career began only this year for Tamil Nadu but was bought by RPS for Rs 4.5 crore.
Playing his first big match against MI, the 25-year-old M Ashwin came out on tops with figures of 4-0-16-1, with the wicket of Shreyas Gopal. That he was brought on to bowl after MI's top five were back in the hut eased the pressure off the newcomer.
But it wasn't that that the established R Ashwin failed. He was just given one over, that too the 16th, when MI were already tied down by Dhoni's medium-pacers. R Ashwin took a wicket off his first delivery but was not given another over as Dhoni went back to his quicks for the death overs. Thus, R Ashwin finished with figures of 1-0-7-1.
Dhoni's decision to give one over to Ashwin wasn't because of dew, for there wasn't any visible unlike in the ICC World T20 semifinal at the same venue that India lost to West Indies on March 31. R Ashwin had bowled only two overs in that match and went for 20 runs without any wicket.
So, why is Dhoni suddenly under-bowling Ashwin? Well, it's not that Dhoni has lost any confidence in his premier off-spinner. "It's a subject like revealing strategy. Ashwin is a matured bowler. For me, he can bowl at any point of time. I knew the moment they (MI) lost a few wickets, there was pressure on their middle or lower middle order," Dhoni said at a promotional event here on Sunday.
Another reason was that Dhoni looked at M Ashwin as a wicket-taking bowler in the upcoming matches. "It was a very good platform for leg-spinner Ashwin to come in. He was slightly under pressure. He's not someone who bowls a lot of short deliveries but he was feeling the pressure. I thought it was more important for me to give him those four overs, as in the longer run I need him as a wicket-taking option. I felt if I could make him bowl four overs, it will give him the confidence to come back strongly in the second and third game.
"But at the same time, we were attacking from the other end, Rajat Bhatia was bowling well, he was exploiting the conditions. That was the reason. (R) Ashwin bowled that one over and after that I thought going with fast bowlers was a better option," Dhoni said.
The skipper added that R Ashwin will still remain his go-to bowler. "Ashwin has bailed me out in a lot of situations, whether bowling in the first six or in the slog overs. He is a bowler who can come in and do well at any time," he said.
Meanwhile, Dhoni's opening batsman, Ajinkya Rahane, the man of the match for his 66*, tried to explain the reason behind bringing R Ashwin late. "This (Wankhede) was a different wicket as compared to the wickets we played on against the West Indies (in WT20 semifinal) or even the ODI against South Africa (October 2015). It was a slightly seamer-friendly wicket. (R) Ashwin is an experienced bowler, a quality bowler. (But) today (Saturday), I felt our fast bowlers were bowling really well. It was important to take the wickets so that we don't give much runs. That is the reason why fast bowlers bowled a lot. They have not played M Ashwin before and he was an unknown quantity. But he bowled really well."
QUOTE
Ashwin has bailed me out in a lot of situations, whether bowling in the first six or in the slog overs. He is a bowler who can come in and do well at any time
--MS Dhoni
