Cricket News

Ravichandran Ashwin slams new ODI Powerplay rules, says makes game shift towards batters

Ravichandran Ashwin has taken a dig at the new ODI Powerplay rules that were implemented in 2015. This was aimed at restraining India’s dominance on the world stage on the back of their spin attack. Ashwin recalled that India was a dominant side back in the year 2013-14 with the spinners playing a big role. But it all changed with the implementation of the new rules.

Two new balls were introduced and the restrictions for the field also changed a lot. This shifted the game style a little toward the batters. He remarked that it was one of the main reasons why the games started becoming quite high-scoring. He discussed this scenario on his YouTube channel. The veteran spinner also talked about KL Rahul’s batting position.

‘Team India were dominating ODI cricket in the period during 2013-14’ – Ravichandran Ashwin 

Ashwin said on his official YouTube channel, “Team India were dominating ODI cricket in the period during 2013-14. One of the main reasons for that was we did not have 5 fielders inside the circle rule and the two new balls rule. I somewhere feel India’s dominance with spin was choking world cricket. “(Ravindra) Jadeja and I were the two spinners at that time. Yuvraj (Singh) and Yusuf (Pathan) used to chip in with some overs. With four fielders inside the circle, it was very difficult to get away in the middle overs. But then they implemented the two new balls rule and all brought the 5 fielders inside the circle rule. Once they did that, the 240-250-260 games disappeared.”

He also praised KL Rahul for becoming a perfect middle-order batter for the Men in Blue, “Apparently KL Rahul was not supposed to play that game. Shreyas Iyer was going to play that game initially. I have always maintained KL Rahul at No. 5 is a lock. ODI cricket should have its ebbs and flows. KL Rahul is giving us the stability with the bat in the middle order.” “That’s why batting in the middle order is really difficult. MS Dhoni nailed that art. I am not comparing MS Dhoni and KL Rahul at all. But I feel he is slowly mastering his role perfectly.”