Ashwin Reveals Abdominal Injury Hampered IPL Performance

Ravichandran Ashwin, the veteran Indian off-spinner, has revealed that he battled an abdominal injury during the first half of the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2024 season, which hindered his bowling performance.

In his initial nine matches, Ashwin managed only two wickets at an economy rate of 9.00. However, in the subsequent four games, he has claimed seven wickets at a much-improved economy of 6.81. This includes his impressive 2 for 17 in four overs against Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) in the Eliminator, which helped Rajasthan Royals (RR) secure a thrilling victory.

"To be honest, in the first half of the season, my body wasn't moving at all," Ashwin admitted after being named Player of the Match. "I felt like I couldn't complete my action properly on many occasions. I had a bit of an abdominal injury as well, so I couldn't really get through it."

Despite the injury, Ashwin remained committed to his team and pushed through the pain. "I put my body on the line in many of the games," he said. "For me, it was more about finding the rhythm and hitting the right lengths. Coming from Test-match mode, your body needs to adjust... I mean, I'm aging, so it's not that easy anymore."

As the tournament progressed, Ashwin gradually found his rhythm through consistent practice. "The amount of repetitions I need for the T20 game is a lot," he explained. "I actually bowl a lot off the game time as well. I needed that amount of bowling time to get into the groove."

RR's victory over RCB ended their five-match winless streak. After a strong start with eight wins in nine games, the team's form dipped, coinciding with injuries to Shimron Hetmyer and the departure of Jos Buttler for national duty.

"We haven't done incredibly well over the last few games," Ashwin acknowledged. "Our batting has struggled to put up par-plus scores. We lost Jos Buttler, Shimron Hetmyer was injured - some crucial blows at the top of the order and in the middle. It's not easy for any team to come out of that. I thought we were a bit rusty chasing 173, but that confidence will come right back into the dressing room now."

RR will now face Sunrisers Hyderabad in Qualifier 2 in Chennai. Ashwin expressed confidence in his team's ability to bounce back. "The greatest strength of our team is the exuberance of youth and the balance of the senior players," he said. "Now that Hettie is back and Rovman [Powell] also got a few boundaries away, which is very critical for us, we would be going confident into that game. We've got a decent spin attack, we've got Keshav [Maharaj] sitting outside. If you can get off to a good start against SRH, you never really know."

RR captain Sanju Samson, who is not in the best of health, praised his team's character for overcoming adversity. "We will have some great phases and we'll have some really bad phases," he said. "But we need to have the character to think that we can bounce back at the crucial moment. Looking at the last four-five games, we have not had any momentum. We had been completely losing all the games and coming here at the knockouts, we were definitely asking ourselves some questions, but the character the team showed, the way we fielded, the way we batted, the way we bowled, I am really happy."

Tags: #IPL2024, #RavichandranAshwin, #RajasthanRoyals, #RoyalChallengersBangalore, #Eliminator