New Delhi, April 5 (IANS) Former India off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin opened up on Sai Sudharsan’s knock for Gujarat Titans in the absence of skipper Shubman Gill and said the way Sudharsan started his innings showed that he understands his strengths well.

Sudharsan produced a batting masterclass of 73 off just 44 balls, but it wasn’t enough as the Titans lost wickets at important stages to suffer a heartbreaking defeat in their first home game of the season at the Narendra Modi Stadium on Saturday evening.

“Sai Sudharsan knew that Shubman wasn’t playing today, so he had to do the heavy lifting himself. The way he started showed that he understands his strengths. He used pace well, guiding the ball towards third man, and then played some good cover drives on the front foot. He took on Jadeja immediately after he came into the attack, made use of the pace, and followed it up with a slog sweep,” Ashwin said on JioStar.

Gill missed the GT’s game against RR owing to a muscle spasm, and Rashid Khan led the side in his absence. Ashiwn feels that when Gill returns, his opening combination with Sudharsan will be the key for GT to move forward.

“These are the strong areas for Sudharsan, which he relies on, and he got the results. He needs to play like this, carry the innings, but at a good tempo. And for the Gujarat Titans, missing Shubman Gill was a big setback. So obviously, when Shubman returns, this opening combination will be key for them going forward, yet again,” he added.

With the thrilling win against GT, RR won their second straight match. Having beaten Chennai Super Kings handily in their opener, the Royals currently top the standings with four points and a Net Run Rate of +2.233 – the best among all teams so far.

Defending 210, Rajasthan were under pressure in the closing stages of Gujarat’s chase as stand-in skipper Rashid Khan and Kagiso Rabada threatened to pull off a stunning finish. With the match heading into the final two overs, skipper Riyan Parag said the plan was to attack the stumps with pace and keep the batters from freeing their arms.

He revealed he had initially considered altering the bowling order at the death but eventually stuck with Archer for the penultimate over after a timely suggestion from Dhurv Jurel and handed a final over to Tushar Deshpande, who managed to defend 10 off the final over to seal a second straight victory.

Former allrounder Irfan Pathan reckoned that the win and some key decisions at the end will give a lot of confidence to Riyan Parag as a captain.

“This was the best game of the season so far. It was very important for Rajasthan that Riyan Parag commands that respect while leading the side. He made that difficult call in the last over, and that decision went in favour of Rajasthan, which will give him a lot of confidence as a leader. He went to Jofra Archer to bowl that 19th over, and generally, you go with your more experienced bowler in the penultimate over,” he said.

“Jofra used his experience, used his pace, and didn’t give any room to either Rabada or Rashid Khan, who were going strong. That over set it up nicely for Tushar Deshpande, because if GT had gotten 10 runs off it, the game would have been done then. It was a special over from Jofra. And credit to Tushar Deshpande, who held his nerve and bowled accurate yorkers, one after the other, to get his side home,” Pathan concluded.

–IANS

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