Ravichandran Ashwin was promoted to No 3 against the Delhi Capitals at the DY Patil Stadium, Navi Mumbai on Wednesday. The Rajasthan Royals’ off-spinner slammed 50 runs off 38 balls in a losing cause. His side lost the game by eight wickets. 

With the win, DC climbed to the fifth rung of the IPL 2022 points table with six wins and as many losses. 

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Promoting Ashwin played well for RR. The India star stabilised the innings after Jos Buttler’s dismissal, shared 43 and 53-run partnerships with Yashaswi Jaiswal (19 off 19) and Devdutt Paddikal, who scored 48 runs off 30 deliveries.

Rajasthan posted 160 runs, which was chased by Rishabh Pant and co with 11 balls to spare. 

Talking about batting higher up the order, Ashwin said that the work done on his batting technique before the start of the season has yielded results.

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“No license has been given. Starting from the season it was communicated to me properly that I will be used as a batter up the order. We had a few practice games where I opened also. Have worked a lot on my batting so it’s nice to see whatever has been worked on translates into the field,” the veteran off-spinner said during the post-match press conference.

The 35-year-old further elaborated on the work he put in before the IPL. 

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“I was in good batting rhythm before the start of the season. Worked a little bit on my batting, like tried to transfer my body wait forward, made a little switch on my technique. Pretty good feel about the knock but it didn’t come at a winning cause,” the RR player added. 

With seven wins and five losses, the Rajasthan Royals are placed third on the points table. They are scheduled to play the Lucknow Super Giants and Chennai Super Kings over the next two weeks.