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Chennai Super Kings have made multiple unexpected and questionable decisions in the initial stages of their campaign.
Ravichandran Ashwin and captain Ruturaj Gaikwad celebrates the dismissal of Royal Challengers Bengaluru’s Devdutt Padikkal (Picture credit: AP)
Former India cricketer Krishnamachari Srikkanth has said that Devon Conway needs to replace Jamie Overton, and Rahul Tripathi should make way for Anshul Kamboj as the Chennai Super Kings struggle with finding their form in IPL 2025, having lost two out of their three matches till now.
Chennai have made multiple unexpected and questionable decisions in the initial stages of their campaign. Captain Ruturaj Gaikwad dropped to No. 3 in the batting order, while Deepak Hooda was preferred to Vijay Shankar.
Ravichandran Ashwin, bought for Rs 9.75 crore for a second stint with Chennai, finished with decent figures of 1/31 during the victory over Mumbai Indians at Chepauk but since then has looked like a shadow of himself.
“Conway has to come in place of Jamie Overton and also bring in Anshul Kamboj into the XI. With regards to Ashwin, don’t drop him, but stop him from bowling in the powerplay,” Srikkanth said while speaking on his YouTube channel.
“Between 7-18th over he can be effective, with Jadeja and Noor Ahmad, they can easily slip in 10 overs at least. I will drop Tripathi and bring in Kamboj and then Conway in place of Overton,” Srikkanth said.
Ashwin isn’t unfamiliar when it comes to bowling with fielding restrictions. His economy in the powerplay is a respectable figure of 7.13 in T20s.
Against the Rajasthan Royals, Ashwin conceded 46 runs in his four overs before dismissing a set Nitish Rana. But the latter read the length of his deliveries well till his wicket, playing beautiful strokes to provide momentum.
Rana pulled, flicked and even ramped the pacers for sixes while using the slog sweep behind square to get two sixes off Ashwin.
At 99/2 in the 10th over, Nitish continued his assault, flicking Matheesha Pathirana for a six while slog-sweeping and reverse-slog-sweeping Ashwin for a six and a boundary as well.
In 215 IPL matches since 2009, Ashwin has picked just 183 wickets at an economy of 7.16. IPL 2011 was his best season, when he bagged 20 wickets in 16 matches at an economy of 6.15.
Chennai next face the unbeaten Delhi Capitals on Saturday, April 5 at home, with one expecting that Ashwin will find some assistance.
