Ravichandran Ashwin casts light on the importance of powerplay in T20s

KL Rahul and Rohit Sharma (Source: Twitter)

The veteran spinner Ravichandran Ashwin thinks powerplay overs can play a big role in deciding the winner in the T20 format and should be fully utilized. 

Although the Indian team ran rampant in the league stage of the T20 World Cup with four wins in five matches, the English team dominated them by 10 wickets in the semi-finals. 

Several questions were raised by the fans on the approach of the openers in the powerplay overs. Rohit Sharma and KL Rahul lacked consistency in big matches and failed on most occasions. 

The Indian team could not make good use of the fielding restrictions, while also losing one of their openers. They scored a total of 217 runs in the powerplay, with an average score of 36.17 in the showpiece event, which is certainly below-par in the T20s. 

Ashwin took to his Youtube Channel to state the importance of the fielding restrictions in the first six overs of a T20 game. He added that the teams winning the powerplay generally end the game on a winning note. 

"In T20 cricket, sometimes we can lose during the match in powerplay itself. We might score 30 in the powerplay, whereas the opponent might score 60 runs, the game ends there. Some of them might not know this stat. We lose or won the match in powerplay".

Ashwin further reckoned that the T20 format allows us to experiment and give freedom to express themselves and help their respective teams prevail. 

The 35-year-old will next be seen representing India in the two-match red-ball series against Bangladesh in December. 

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