Rajasthan Royals (RR) secured a 61-run victory against Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) in their first match of the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2022 and the Sanju Samson-led side are now set to take on Mumbai Indians (MI) on April 2 (Saturday).
Meanwhile, ahead of the match against the Rohit Sharma-led MI, RR spinner Ravichandran Ashwin made a big claim. The veteran Indian spinner revealed that Rohit and former India skipper Virat Kohli “don’t like getting out to bowlers inside the team.” Although, Ashwin admitted that he loves “going head-on with Virat and Rohit.”
Ashwin speaks
“I love going head-on with Virat and Rohit, to be honest. I think they are two quality batters that have played with me inside the dressing room, not two batters that I’ve got repeated contests against at an international arena. But I get to go against them in the IPL format so I love going against them. They don’t like getting out to bowlers inside the team so I enjoy the contest and look forward to it every year,” Ashwin said during a conversation with ESPNCricinfo.
In their third match of the 15th edition of IPL, RR will take on Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) on April 5 (Tuesday).
Notably, Rohit and Kohli have got decent numbers against Ashwin in IPL. The Indian skipper scored 109 runs and has been dismissed twice by Ashwin. Kohli, on the other hand, has scored 160 runs and has been dismissed only once by the 35-year-old off-spinner.
RR's start in IPL 2022
RR kicked off their IPL 2022 campaign against Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) but Ashwin could not pick up a wicket in that game. He had conceded 26 runs against SRH, bowling four overs.
Batting first, RR had registered a solid total of 210/6 in 20 overs. RR skipper Sanju Samson scored a brilliant half century (55 runs off 27 balls) to help his side in reaching a huge total.
In reply, the Kane Williamson-led side could only manage to secure a total of 149/7 in 20 overs after a top order collapse in the powerplay overs. For RR, their India spinner Yuzvendra Chahal had scalped three wickets against SRH. Prasidh Krishna and Kiwi pacer Trent Boult picked up two wickets each to clinch a convincing victory for their side.
