After a lacklustre Indian Premier League (IPL) 2025 season, Ravi Bishnoi is back to his best. On April 4, Bishnoi bagged a record-breaking four-wicket haul against Gujarat Titans (GT). The Rajasthan Royals (RR) leggie earned praise from legendary off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin for putting in the hard work. Ashwin feels Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) didn’t handle him well and the young wirst-spinner should’ve gone for Rs 10-12 crore in the mini-auction. Also, he took a dig at Chennai Super Kings (CSK) for picking Rahul Chahar over Bishnoi, giving up on the latter when the bid crossed the Rs 5.8 crore.
"It is time to give him credit. He has the Purple cap now, the cap looks good on his head because he had a challenging season with LSG last year. He was not even traded after that, he was just put back into the auction pool. I was so sure that he would go for 10-12 crores, and that did not happen," Ashwin explained.
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"CSK pulled out at 7 [5.8] crores, because they were saying that there is not much difference between Ravi Bishnoi and Rahul Chahar. The way LSG handled him, that is why Ravi Bihsnoi's stock value dipped. I am eagerly waiting to see Ravi Bishnoi's comeback as Ravi Bishnoi 2.0," the 39-year-old added.
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Bishnoi breaks former teammate’s record
Bishnoi conceded 41 runs from his quota of four overs but got the wickets of opener Sai Sudharsan, Glenn Phillips, Washington Sundar and Rahul Tewatia. Bishnoi became the first spinner to take a four-fer against GT. The previous best bowling figures by a spinner against GT belonged to Krunal Pandya who took three wickets for 11 runs, representing LSG in IPL 2024.
Bishnoi leads the purple cap race
Bishnoi currently holds the purple cap with five wickets from two games at an average of 11.40. Punjab Kings' (PBKS) Vijaykumar Vyshak has five wickets from two games as well but his average is 14.40. His economy rate in the ongoing season is 8.14 runs per over.
In the previous season for LSG, he bagged nine wickets from 11 games at an average of 44.55 and conceded runs at 10.83 runs per over.