Team India’s spinner Ravichandran Ashwin was traded from Indian Premier League(IPL) franchise Kings XI Punjab to Delhi Capitals ahead of the IPL 2020 auction. He didn’t have a successful season for the Punjab-based franchise after being bought by them in 2018 for the whopping amount of INR 7.60 crores. Under his captaincy, KXIP in the last two seasons failed to qualify for the playoffs even though they had a dream-like start.
Ravichandran Ashwin was selected as the captain soon after the franchise bagged his service. The way KXIP started their game in the 11th edition of the league, they were predicted to be the winner in that season.
However, fortune turned the table, they had a drastic end. In the last eight games, they won only one game and failed to qualify for the play-offs. The IPL 2019 had also a similar story as Ashwin-led side ended sixth in the points table.
Ravichandran Ashwin opines reasons of his failure:
Recalling his stint with the franchise, Ashwin said that he gave his “heart and soul”, but couldn’t make things work.
He also gave the reason behind his failure, stating that bowler faces difficulty to chalk out the 360-degree plan because he already has the workload
“I put my heart and soul into what I could for Kings XI. Sometimes things are not meant to be. The game is constantly led by batsman, maybe because bowlers do a lot of work and not able to take 360-degree view of the game – especially when it comes to Test format. That’s one of the reasons why batsman leads the side,” Ashwin was quoted as saying to Sportskeeda.
Ashwin admires Shane Warne’s captaincy:
Ravichandran Ashwin is impressed with the captaincy stint of Shane Warne, who is a bowler, led Rajasthan Royals to their first title in the inauguration season. He said that a bowler can be a good captain only if he is capable of planing and plotting can become a good captain.
“But I think that bowler who knows how to set his fields, how he gets his plans right and he can be a good captain. One person I would have loved to watch leading a side was Shane Warne. He had a very sharp cricketing brain, showcased that for Rajasthan Royals in the first IPL,” he added.
For KXIP, Ashwin picked up 25 wickets from 28 matches. The veteran also managed to play a couple of handy knocks for the Punjab team lower down the order.