Versatile Ashwin dons his other mask in crucial win

"Feels like a million dollars," beamed Ravichandran Ashwin after receiving his Man of the Match award. It wasn't a customary award that Ashwin was accustomed to winning for the wily web he spins around oppositions, but this one was special. Ashwin, batting at No.5 against Chennai Super Kings, ahead of Shimron Hetmyer and Riyan Parag, smashed an unbeaten 23-ball 40 to not just give Rajasthan Royals a five-wicket win, but also ensured they sealed their berth in the Qualifier 1 against Gujarat Titans with a second-spot finish in the league stage of IPL 2022.

Ashwin has been used as a floater by the Royals throughout the season. Having opened the batting in club cricket when much younger, Ashwin is a capable enough batter to wield the willow, as he has shown multiple times. Not every bowler has five Test centuries with close to 3000 Test runs. In this season of the IPL, however, he's proven he's no dilettante with the bat even in the shortest format and actually can fetch you the desired results when mattered most, like he did on Saturday (May 20).

Ashwin came in at a stage when the Royals needed 75 runs for victory. The pressure mounted as set batsman Yashavi Jaiswal fell three overs later and Shimron Hetmyer followed suit not long after. He kept his calm and batted with composure, striking two of his three sixes over deep midwicket with lots of innovation and dexterity.

"You can't tell from the outside really as to how the wicket is playing or what options you have in terms of shots for certain match-ups even," Ashwin said after the game. "You can't decide that from the outside. You have to take time and play, so I gave myself some time about 5-7 balls to assess the wicket. I think the wicket was a bit sticky with Santner and Moeen's deliveries were sticking a tad bit so I had to really pick the deliveries that I could hit. Yashasvi got out at the wrong time or I could've taken more risk against Moeen. It was important to understand the match-up and play accordingly. I backed myself today to play until the end come what may and knew if that happened, we could win and that's what happened.

"Even though we've played in Mumbai, all three pitches have played very differently, keeping Pune aside. DY Patil has a bit of steeper bounce and it's one of the more truer batting wickets going around in the competition. It's a little bit slower through the first half, Wankhede has been quite different to what usually Wankhede has been and CCI has been quite skiddy and flat. According to that usage of stance, and match-ups against which bowler...there's been a concentrated effort on what areas I've been working on. Usually I tend to go back and across and try and slog the ball down the leg-side, it's pretty easy to bowl. So I've tried to open up the wider range of options for me and I'm extremely confident I can clear the ropes when required so that confidence is most important as I can understand the ebbs and flows of the game pretty decently."

Ashwin was told prior to the start of the season that his role would be a hybrid one this season, where he was even asked to open the batting in the practice games that the Royals had ahead of the season. During the 14 league games, he has batted at various positions, and when promoted up, has punched above expectations.

"Batting is one part of the sport that is massively driven by reputations and many a time being primarily a bowler I get to bowl a lot in the nets and the batsmen occupy most of the time inside the nets. When you're batting ay No.8 or 9 you probably get to bat once or twice in 3-4 games if your batting line-up is doing well, but the fact that they told me that you will be opening in the practice games, you will be used in the PowerPlay and the amount of repetitions I was given and the simulations... all these things really help. I've been quite innovative in terms of trying to adapt to new techniques and I'm very thankful to the people who have put work behind those and hopefully I can put on a few more good performances like this."

Ashwin was Royals's knight in shining armour against CSK in a batting line-up that had otherwise failed to fire. Yet the franchise managed to get over the line and seal its irst top-two finish since 2008. It was back then that they also went on to win the title. If they are to push for the chance at ultimate glory 14 years later, they will need their top order to deliver. All eyes will be on Jos Buttler and Sanju Samson in particular, when the Playoffs kick off. But that's for later. Celebrations are due after having finished in the top four for the first time since 2018.