In the Indian Premier League game between Mumbai Indians and Rajasthan Royal at the Wankhede Stadium, veteran spinner Ravichandran Ashwin would play his 200th IPL. He will join the elite group alongside MS Dhoni, Virat Kohli, and Rohit Sharma. The star player will be the 10th player to achieve this feat in the richest franchise cricket league in the world.
The 37-year-old made his IPL debut back in 2009 for the Chennai Super Kings and has managed to score 743 runs and pick up 172 wickets in these years. He is the fifth-leading wicket-taker in the tournament’s history, and before joining the Royals, he was part of the Kings XI Punjab, Delhi Capitals, and Rising Pune Supergiants. He also led the Punjab side in the IPL 2018 and 2019.
While playing for RR, Ashwin has featured in 32 IPL matches, scalping 27 wickets and contributing 287 runs with the bat. In the last match against the Delhi Capitals, he walked in at No. 5 and added 29 off 19 balls, including three sixes.
MS Dhoni holds the record for playing the greatest number of matches with 253, and Rohit Sharma is second with 245. Both of these players only played for two franchises in their whole careers.
MI is known for their slow start, but they would like to build serious momentum given the strength of their squad. They have so far used 14 players in two games, with entirely different impact players in each of the games. This was in part due to a niggle ruling out Luke Wood from the game against Hyderabad. If fit, he’s expected to replace Kwena Maphaka.
RR, on their part, picked up two gratifying wins, with their middle-order and death bowlers giving an impressive performance against the Supergiants and Capitals. They are yet to face a power-hitting side like Mumbai that could test the capacity of their bowling unit. They would not look to change much after a good start, but if required, they could slot in Rovman Powell for an extra leverage batter.
