Mumbai: Echoing similar sentiments with India skipper Virat Kohli, ace off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin believes the cricketers will have to themselves keep a check on their workload during the upcoming season of the Indian Premier League (IPL), starting March 23.
With just a three-week gap between the IPL final and the start of the 2019 World Cup, plenty of talks have been going on regarding the workload of Indian players. However, the Kings XI Punjab (KXIP) skipper reminded the cricketers that franchises have invested a lot on them and will expect them to perform so, the onus will be on the players to strike a balance.
Earlier, Virat Kohli had said that any player should be smart enough to manage his workload and there isn’t any cap on the number of matches for the Indian players during the domestic T20 tournament. “I don’t think as a cricketer you can look far ahead about what needs to be done and how you can manage it. As a cricketer or as a sportsperson you just concentrate on what happens today. The franchise has invested money on you,” Ashwin said on the sidelines of the Cricfig cricket memorabilia launch here on Saturday.
Aswhin also agreed that the workload factor will always stay at the back of the player’s mind during the upcoming edition of the cash-rich league. “It (workload) definitely stays at the back of the mind because it is being spoken about a lot more right now. I am sure the players are responsible enough and more fitness-aware and be able to handle it than they ever were,” the spinner opined.
“I don’t think going into the tournament people will be thinking about it but as the tournament pans out and the way it goes for each and every franchise and for each and every player, they will take decisions wisely,” Ashwin added. Meanwhile, after bagging seven wickets from six games at a decent economy, Ashwin expressed satisfaction at his performance in the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy. “I went and played the Syed Mushtaq Ali and I had a decent outing. That’s how I look at it. I am playing cricket and it is not like I need to specialise in one particular format,” Ashwin said. “It is the challenges of the modern day game, I will be looking forward to do whatever I can do best,” explained the 32-year bowler.
