Guwahati, March 31: Former Indian spinner Ravichandran Ashwin on Tuesday explained why Chennai Super Kings (CSK) had a poor start during their opening game against Rajasthan Royals of the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2026 at the ACA Stadium in Guwahati on Monday. Ashwin blamed the moisture in the pitch for their top order collapse while batting first at the early stage of the match. He also said that moisture and seam movement made batting first extremely difficult.
Unfavourable Conditions
In his analysis, Ashwin said that the pitch had a big role in the match and said that the conditions were heavily in the favour of the bowlers which made it very hard for batters to perform in the first innings.
Rain Brought Moisture
Ashwin explained that the pitch remained covered for three days due to rain which left a lot of moisture underneath. This helped the bowlers as the moved a lot after pitching. He said this gave a clear advantage to the team bowling first and made it tough for the batters to settle in early.
Massive Seam Movement
Talking about the difficulty, Ashwin said that the ball was seaming too much. He referred to ball that beat Sanju Samson in his analysis and said that the movement off the pitch was too much for a T20 game. According to him, it was almost like facing a spinning delivery at a speed of over 140 kmph, which is extremely hard to control.
Not Ideal For T20 Cricket
Ashwin added that such conditions are not ideal for the T20 format as the batters are expected to play attacking shots. He said when there is too much seam movement, it becomes difficult even for top players as they are dealing with something that is largely uncontrollable.
Ashwin's Complete Analysis
It wasn’t a great start for CSK last night, but here’s why it was really hard for the batters to take first strike on that pitch. 3 days the pitch remained under covers due to rain, enough moisture to give the first bowling side a significant advantage. This image illustrates how much the ball has seamed to defeat Sanju on the outer half of the blade. That much seam movement is not ideal in the T 20 format, and it is very tough to control the uncontrollable. For better understanding, that’s a big spinning delivery coming towards the batter at a speed of 140+. #ipl2026 #csk.
