Delhi Capitals captain Shreyas Iyer has said that Ravichandran Ashwin told him he was fine and ‘ready’ for the next game, in spite of a shoulder injury in the field that looked far worse at the time.

“I briefly spoke to Ashwin, and he says he’ll be ready for the next game, but in the end, the physio is going to decide,” Iyer said in the post-match presentation.

The off-spinner hurt himself while going for a dive off the last ball of his own over, and was immediately in a lot of pain. There was a grimace on his face as he walked off the field, clutching at his left shoulder. He was soon seen with his left arm in a sling, as commentators spoke of a possible dislocated shoulder.

If the injury is indeed not as bad as it looked initially, and if Ashwin does manage to make it for DC’s next game – against CSK on September 25 in Dubai, it will come as a big boost to Iyer’s side.

It was after all Ashwin’s over that turned the game on its head before Mayank Agarwal pulled KXIP out of a quagmire. In his first appearance against the side he led last season, Ashwn picked a wicket first ball – dismissing Karun Nair with an inviting loopy delivery that the Karnataka batsman top-edged to Prithvi Shaw at short-fine. He then got one ball to breach Nicholas Pooran’s big bat-pad gap to leave DC on the mat.

After the topsy-turvy heist that they pulled off in their season opener, DC now have a four-day break for rest and recovery before going up against the three-time champions.

RELATED STORIES