Hungry Ravichandran Ashwin keen to keep evolving as a batter

Despite being 37, Ravichandran Ashwin has managed to stay at the top of the game due to his skills and his constant reinventing and pushing the boundaries. Ashwin, the bowler, has been evolving non-stop for the past decade, but the 2024 Tamil Nadu Premier League (TNPL) has seen Ashwin, the batter, hit new heights.

The Dindigul Dragons captain has amassed 200 runs so far in TNPL 2024 at a stunning strike rate of 33.33. 

126 of these runs have come in the playoffs alone, batting in the top three, with Ashwin propelling his side to the final by bludgeoning a stunning 30-ball 69* as an opener in Qualifier 2 against IDream Tiruppur Tamizhans.

Ashwin might be 37 years and 324 T20s old, but the veteran still feels that his batting, particularly the power-hitting side of it, is still a ‘work in progress’.

"Look, everything is work in progress, right?," Ashwin said on the eve of the TNPL final, speaking of his returns in TNPL 2024, reported ESPNcricinfo.

"You can even ask Shahrukh Khan about it. How does he do power-hitting… how do you hit the ball through the off side and leg side? It's all about repetitions and understanding angles and triggers.”

Ashwin has always been a capable hitter in white-ball cricket, but he revealed that he felt during the 2024 Indian Premier League (IPL) that he needed to widen his scoring options, particularly square of the wicket.

"Obviously, in the last IPL, I felt like I needed to widen my game and widen my horizons square of the wicket because I know I can hit the ball down the ground, and I can use my feet. Do I want to explore other options is something I had to ask myself,” he said. 

“So if I can ask that question and if I can find an answer, it gives me a new avenue to explore and keep myself interested in the game."

Ashwin’s counterpart and opponent in Sunday’s final, Shahrukh Khan (skipper of Lyca Kovai Kings), has been having an even more outrageous season with the bat, having hammered 222 runs at an average of 55.50 and a strike rate of 191.37. He has particularly been destructive against the slower bowlers. 

On the eve of the final, Shahrukh credited his stint with Gujarat Titans (GT) in IPL 2024 for helping him improve his game against spin.

"When I was with the Gujarat Titans, we had a camp for about a couple of months there, so I started working a lot on my spin game because they wanted me to bat up the order," Shahrukh said. "And when you bat up the order, obviously for a batter like me having my concerns against spin bowling, especially, opponent teams would bring in spin when I come out to bat.

"So their role was to help me improve my spin game, and it really helped. The front press I'm doing [in the TNPL] is quite obvious now, and it has helped me to score off the front foot and off the back foot as well."

LKK are eyeing a third straight TNPL title, having gone all the way in each of the last two editions (TNPL 2022 was a shared title). 

Despite LKK topping the table in the group stages, Shahrukh asserted that his side have not played their best cricket yet. He hoped for his team to bring out their ‘A’ game in the final against the Dragons on August 4th (Sunday).

"I really don't know [about the law of averages]. We're taking it as just another game," Shahrukh said. 

"The law of averages and the hat-trick [of titles]… all these things on social media are there, but we aren't focusing on that. Out of the eight games we've played, only in two games we've stepped up to the expectations we have as a unit.

"I hope even in this game we try and bring it out. As far as I'm concerned, we still haven't played our best cricket this year, and we will try and do that."

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