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Ashwin: In the last IPL, I felt like I needed to widen my game

R Ashwin, who is 37 years old and in his maiden complete season in the Tamil Nadu Premier League (TNPL), is becoming a more versatile batsman. His ability to locate boundaries on the ground has always been a strength of the Rajasthan Royals, who use it to put him up the order in the IPL to give their finishers a better point of entry. However, Ashwin has been practicing shooting boundary shots square of the wicket in the TNPL this year, and it’s paying off.

With several reverse sweeps, Ashwin destroyed left-arm fingerspinners R Sai Kishore and S Ajith Ram in the Qualifier 2 match on Friday at Chepauk against Idream Tiruppur Tamizhans. With a strike rate of over 300, he scored 28 off nine balls, demonstrating his extreme severity towards Sai Kishore. Ashwin has amassed 200 runs at a strike rate of 166.66 in eight innings this TNPL, five of which have come at the top or No. 3 position for the Dindigul Dragons.

He added, “Look, everything is work in progress, right?,” the night before the Lyca Kovai Kings of Shahrukh Khan faced off in the TNPL final in Chennai. Even Shahrukh Khan is available for an interview. How does he strike the ball through the off side and leg side? How does he achieve power hitting? It all comes down to repetitions, awareness of angles, and knowledge of triggers.

“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. 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.”

P Vignesh, the rookie left-arm fingerspinner for Dindigul, was removed from India’s Under-19 World Cup squad earlier this year, but he has impressed especially with his precision and control in the TNPL. He finished with 3 for 8 versus Tiruppur in Qualifier 2, winning Player of the Match. Similar to Vignesh, Mohamed Ali, an all-rounder from Tiruppur who bowls off spin, was left out of India’s Under-19 World Cup team but has established himself in the TNPL. Ashwin has exhorted the upcoming crop of cricket players to accept failure and never stop improving.

“Look, firstly I think missing the Under-19 cut is not the end of the world. Looking at how fragile our next generation can be, I really urge people to look at this game as a part of life,” Ashwin said. “Failure and success is very, very normal, and people become better only through failures. So I know P Vignesh, he has been coming to the Indian team nets, and I think he has improved every day. And this sort of a tournament gives these guys opportunity to be able to express and expand their game. I really hope that they’re ready to expand it constantly, and find answers to the questions that are going to be asked.”

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Shahrukh: GT helped improve my game against spin

Shahrukh has frequently had trouble against spin, particularly early in his innings. However, he has been working on a technical adjustment that he feels would make him a more well-rounded batter: a trigger movement where he thrusts his weight forward.

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.”

Shahrukh has an overall IPL strike rate of 161.11 against pace, but it drops dramatically to 112 against spin. However, he was able to increase his strike rate against spin to 168.75 in the IPL 2024 while keeping it at a good level against pace. Additionally, Shahrukh faced left-arm spinner Vignesh and mystery spinner Varun Chakravarthy during Kovai’s league phase match against Dindigul in Tirunelveli. He went on to score an undefeated 51 off 25 balls.

Following their defeat to Dindigul, Shahrukh has urged his side to play their “best cricket” in an attempt to complete a treble in the TNPL.

“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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