'Lot of thinking and improvements to do' - Kumar Sangakkara urges R Ashwin to bowl more off-spin

The Rajasthan Royals Director of Cricket and head coach Kumar Sangakkara has said that senior off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin is a very good bowler, but he would need to keep working on bowling off-spin more frequently. The former Sri Lankan skipper made the statement after RR’s seven-wicket loss against the Gujarat Titans in the IPL 2022 final at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad on May 29.

The seasoned off-spinner was introduced into the attack in the 12th over of GT’s chase. However, he was seen trying to deceive the batters with the carrom ball in RR’s defence of 130 instead of bowling regulation spin. The move backfired in the end as Ashwin went wicketless, conceding 32 runs in three overs.

Ash has done a great job for us: Kumar Sangakkara

“Ash (Ashwin), he’s done a great job for us. Even for Ash, being a legend in terms of what he has achieved on the cricketing pitch, there will be a lot of thinking and improvements to do, especially with his off spin and bowling more of it,” said Sangakkara in a press conference.

The Tamil Nadu cricketer, who was one of the Rajasthan Royals’ newest recruits in the IPL 2022, finished the tournament with 12 wickets from 17 matches at an average of 41.92 and an economy rate of 7.51.

Coming back to the contest, Rajasthan lost the plot in the middle overs after they lost a well-set Jos Buttler for 39 runs. It opened up the floodgates for the Gujarat bowlers as they contained the run flow brilliantly at the death, thereby restricting the 2008 winners to 130/9.

In reply, the Rajasthan bowlers failed to make the ball talk, with Yuzvendra Chahal, Trent Boult and Prasidh Krishna picking up one wicket each. GT opener Shubman Gill, who got a reprieve in the first over, made the Royals pay dearly for their shoddy fielding and went on to score a match-winning unbeaten 45 as the Titans lifted their maiden IPL crown.