Sehwag believes that a bowler who is unable to consistently take wickets will struggle to secure a spot in a team under his coaching or mentorship.
Ravichandran Ashwin has garnered attention recently for his insights into the future of T20 cricket, drawing from the 2024 Indian Premier League (IPL). Additionally, his performance this season for the Rajasthan Royals has been under scrutiny, as he has not been as successful in taking wickets. Ashwin has expressed that his role for RR is more focused on maintaining control as a bowler, rather than solely focusing on taking wickets. He believes that the traditional emphasis on wicket-taking may be diminishing in importance within the T20 format.
Ashwin has suggested that the technology being utilized by teams indicates a shift towards prioritizing containment of runs over taking wickets. However, former Indian cricketer Virender Sehwag has countered this argument by stating that Ashwin's perspective may be skewed. Sehwag believes that a bowler who is unable to consistently take wickets will struggle to secure a spot in a team under his coaching or mentorship.
“All his competitors - (Yuzvendra) Chahal, Kuldeep Yadav or anyone else - are getting the wickets. He thinks if he bowls off spin then anyone will hit him. Which is why he bowls his carrom bowl, which is why he is not getting any wickets. Maybe if he believes in his off spin or doosra, he can bag more wickets. But that's his mindset,” Sehwag said on Cricbuzz.
"But if I were a mentor or a coach of a franchise, I wouldn't think like that. If my bowler is thinking about saving runs and not taking wickets, he won't find a place in the team," he added.
“Sometimes even when you bowl well, you go for 40 runs. Many teams these days use AI and technology and what's emerged out of those is that wicket-taking is becoming irrelevant in T20 cricket. If you look at this IPL wicket-taking is sometimes hampering certain teams,” Ashwin had said.
Sehwag, however, likened the veteran spinner's comments to Lucknow Super Giants captain KL Rahul's statement last year that the significance of a batter's strike rate in T20 cricket is "overrated."
"This is the same as when KL Rahul had said that the strike rate is overrated. Same thing. He said it for batting, Ashwin has said it for bowling that it doesn't matter if you get the wickets. If his stats aren't good, then he may not even get picked in the auction next year. When you pick a bowler, do you expect him to give away 25-30 runs or do you expect him to give you wickets and become man of the match twice or thrice?" said Sehwag.
Ashwin has only managed to secure two wickets in eight matches this season, maintaining an economy rate of nine.
Also read| 'When people create imbalances....': Virat Kohli's sister reacts to RCB batter's strike rate chatter in IPL 2024
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 "'Won't find a place in my team': Virender Sehwag slams legendary India player for his comments on T20 cricket")
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