Sehwag believes {that a} bowler who’s unable to persistently take wickets will battle to safe a spot in a staff underneath his teaching or mentorship.
Ravichandran Ashwin has garnered consideration lately for his insights into the way forward for T20 cricket, drawing from the 2024 Indian Premier League (IPL). Additionally, his efficiency this season for the Rajasthan Royals has been underneath scrutiny, as he has not been as profitable in taking wickets. Ashwin has expressed that his position for RR is extra targeted on sustaining management as a bowler, somewhat than solely focusing on taking wickets. He believes that the standard emphasis on wicket-taking could also be diminishing in significance inside the T20 format.
Ashwin has instructed that the expertise being utilized by groups signifies a shift in the direction of prioritizing containment of runs over taking wickets. However, former Indian cricketer Virender Sehwag has countered this argument by stating that Ashwin’s perspective could also be skewed. Sehwag believes {that a} bowler who’s unable to persistently take wickets will battle to safe a spot in a staff underneath his teaching or mentorship.
“All his competitors – (Yuzvendra) Chahal, Kuldeep Yadav or anyone else – are getting the wickets. He thinks if he bowls off spin then anyone will hit him. Which is why he bowls his carrom bowl, which is why he is not getting any wickets. Maybe if he believes in his off spin or doosra, he can bag more wickets. But that’s his mindset,” Sehwag mentioned on Cricbuzz.
“But if I were a mentor or a coach of a franchise, I wouldn’t think like that. If my bowler is thinking about saving runs and not taking wickets, he won’t find a place in the team,” he added.
“Sometimes even when you bowl well, you go for 40 runs. Many teams these days use AI and technology and what’s emerged out of those is that wicket-taking is becoming irrelevant in T20 cricket. If you look at this IPL wicket-taking is sometimes hampering certain teams,” Ashwin had mentioned.
Sehwag, nonetheless, likened the veteran spinner’s comments to Lucknow Super Giants captain KL Rahul’s assertion final 12 months that the importance of a batter’s strike fee in T20 cricket is “overrated.”
“This is the same as when KL Rahul had said that the strike rate is overrated. Same thing. He said it for batting, Ashwin has said it for bowling that it doesn’t matter if you get the wickets. If his stats aren’t good, then he may not even get picked in the auction next year. When you pick a bowler, do you expect him to give away 25-30 runs or do you expect him to give you wickets and become man of the match twice or thrice?” mentioned Sehwag.
Ashwin has solely managed to safe two wickets in eight matches this season, sustaining an financial system fee of 9.
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