India’s premier off-spinner in Test cricket, Ravichandran Ashwin, has finally come out and revealed the reason behind his move to Delhi Capitals (DC) from Kings XI Punjab (KXIP), ahead of the auctions last year.
Ashwin was, earlier, bagged by the Mohali-based franchise during the mega-auctions of 2018 at a whopping amount of INR 7.6 crores. Before that, Ashwin was an integral part of Chennai Super Kings (CSK) franchise and the now-disbanded Rising Pune Supergiant (RPS).
The Ness Wadia and Preity Zinta co-owned (KXIP) franchise appointed the Tamil Nadu offie as the captain of the side.
During the 2018 season, Ashwin’s team made a superb start to their campaign before losing their momentum at the business end of the league stages.
In the 2019 season, Kings XI ended up sixth in the league. Now KXIP roped in Anil Kumble for the mentorship role, who was also part of the Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) and Mumbai Indians (MI) earlier.
Recently, Ashwin revealed the reason for his move to DC and stated that ‘he joined Delhi intending to make them front-runners for the title’.
“I was coming to a franchise which had qualified for the playoffs last season and had some very exciting players including Rishabh (Pant) and Prithvi (Shaw). I thought I could use my experience for the franchise and improve the team further. If I could help in strengthening the bowling, we could be the front runners for the title, I came with that intention,” Ashwin told Delhi Capitals on Instagram Live.
Ashwin joins Test specialist Hanuma Vihari, Ishant Sharma and Ajinkya Rahane (released by Rajasthan Royals) in the Delhi Camp.
The Tamil Nadu stalwart will now work under legendary Australian captain Ricky Ponting at the Kotla-based franchise.
However, both DC and KXIP, along with RCB, are the only sides to feature in all IPL editions since its inception and are still to open their account in the title tally.
