Ashwin a thinking skipper, says teammate Miller

BANGALORE: R Ashwin is acknowledged as a thinking, articulate cricketer, but the India off-spinner was somewhat an unknown quantity when Kings XI Punjab appointed him skipper for the Indian Premier League 2018.

The 31-year-old made a mark in the Twenty20 league as a match-winner for Chennai Super Kings before his going on to establish himself as the leading Test spinner for India.

He was bought by the now defunct Rising Pune Supergiants in 2016, and after a subdued season, he missed last year’s IPL due to fitness issues.

With Ashwin losing his spot in India’s limited-overs squads after the tour of the West Indies in mid-2017, there was a question mark over the Chennai spinner going into the 2018 player auction.

The KXIP bosses showed faith by buying him and naming him skipper of the team still chasing its first IPL title.

R Ashwin made a good first impression when he led the team to an easy victory over Delhi Daredevils in their opening game in Mohali.

However, he will face his first big test on Friday when he leads KXIP against Royal Challengers Bangalore, at the den of his India skipper, Virat Kohli.

CALCULATED THINKING

David Miller, Kings XI’S explosive South Africa batsman, praised the only bowling skipper in this IPL for how he has encouraged players to express themselves.

“From what I have gathered, he is very calculated. He thinks about the game very well. Every decision he makes, there is a reason why he does that,” Miller said at the media conference on Friday. What a happy IPL comeback it’s been for one of my favourite teams, CSK. They have won two out of two so far.

But knowing Stephen Fleming and MS Dhoni to be very rational people, I think they would be the first ones to admit that their team has been extremely lucky with both those wins.

It was Dwayne Bravo’s fantastic performance with both bat and ball that won them the game they were set to lose by a big margin against MI in the opener.

Then, set to get 203 to win in a run-chase against KKR, CSK were again hopelessly out of it before Sam Billings came in and played a magical innings to give them another unexpected win.

It’s nice to have two wins on the trot. It makes you relaxed but CSK must use this time to iron out flaws that were evident in the two matches.

Their two senior spinners, Harbhajan Singh and Ravindra Jadeja, bowling just seven overs in two games instead of 16 should