‘The kind of 24-carat batting pitches we see in the IPL weren’t available’ – Ravichandran Ashwin reacts to Ireland series defeat

Former Indian cricketer Ravichandran Ashwin weighed in on India’s batting failures following a historic 2-0 T20I series whitewash against Ireland. The Men in Blue fell 34 runs short while chasing a target of 183 in the first T20I, followed by a dramatic, narrow one-run defeat while chasing 155 in the second.  Big-hitting Indian batters like Abhishek Sharma, Sanju Samson, and Ishan Kishan struggled throughout the series. 

While Abhishek impressed with a quickfire 50 off 20 balls in the opener, he was dismissed for a golden duck in the second game. Ashwin pointed out that players have grown accustomed to the batting-friendly ‘24-carat’ pitches in the IPL. Consequently, they are finding it difficult to adjust to challenging overseas conditions where pitches offer more assistance to bowlers.

“The kind of 24-carat batting pitches we see in the IPL weren’t available here, and I really enjoyed the quality of cricket that was played. Most of this Indian batting line-up has come straight from the IPL. Their real value at the international level will be tested only when they play on wickets that are not true batting surfaces. The batting line-up has undoubtedly improved because of the IPL, but when they come across pitches offering movement and assistance to bowlers, they are going to face difficulties,” said Ashwin on his YouTube channel.

Even Iyer acknowledged that while the Indian bowlers executed their plans well, the batters failed to read the pitch conditions. He noted that their inability to capitalize on scoring opportunities, particularly by failing to convert singles into twos, ultimately allowed Ireland to outplay them at crucial moments.

“It’s still definitely not a great series, honestly speaking, but kudos to them for the way they played. Ireland team, I think they showed professionalism and definitely had a tremendous idea about how the wicket was going to play and the field work there was phenomenal. So a comprehensive win to them and congratulations. Absolutely. I feel the bowlers, they were phenomenal in terms of their execution today. But we fell a bit short in our batting. We were, we fell a bit short in terms of analysing how the wicket is going to play and also converting singles into twos. I think they definitely outplayed us in that department,” said Iyer after the match.