“It Was Becoming A Hassle”: Ravichandran Ashwin’s Intriguing Take On ODI Powerplay Rules

Ravichandran Ashwin believes that the new ODI Powerplay rules that were implemented in 2015 were aimed at curbing India’s dominance on the world stage on the back of their spin attack. In a recent interaction, Ashwin recalled that India were a dominant side back in 2013-14 with the spinners playing a massive role but it all changed with the implementation of the new rules. With two new balls allowed and changes in field restrictions, the game became slightly tilted towards the batters and Ashwin remarked that it was one of the main reasons why the games started becoming quite high-scoring.

“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,” Ashwin said on his official YouTube channel.

“(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,” the veteran spinner added.

Ashwin also praised KL Rahul and said that he is slowly becoming a perfect middle-order batter.

“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.” he explained.