Indian off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin has made a successful return to the white-ball cricket after a long four-year halt. He made his first white-ball appearance for India during the recently concluded T20 World Cup 2021. He was taking wickets for fun and didn’t give away too many runs.

Martin Guptill was in full praises for Ravichandran Ashwin after the first T20 International against India in Jaipur. Guptill has admitted that he can’t remember Ashwin bowling any bad ball during his career.

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“He’s a wily bowler, he’s got great control of his line and length and he just doesn’t bowl bad balls. I don’t remember him bowling me any bad balls throughout his career,” said Guptill in the post-match press conference.

Ashwin bowled an exceptional spell during the first T20I against New Zealand. He didn’t leak easy runs before dismissing well-set Mark Chapman who had already scored his maiden T20I fifty. Ashwin took three balls to dismiss Glenn Phillips in the same over. His spell against New Zealand reads 4-0-23-2 in Jaipur.

“He’s just very difficult to get away, you know, his change of pace is so subtle and so well-controlled, he’s just very hard to get away,” said Guptill.

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India restricted New Zealand to 164/6 in 20 overs despite Chapman and Guptill hitting fifties. Indian openers KL Rahul and Rohit Sharma walked out with all guns blazing. After KL Rahul got out, Suryakumar Yadav took the baton from there and scored a match-winning fifty. He scored 62 runs in 40 balls, where he hit six fours and three sixes.

After a few hiccups towards the end, India got home safely with five wickets in hand. Rishabh Pant hit the winning run and gave India an early lead in the three-match series. The next match will take place in Ranchi on November 19.