Former India player Ravichandran Ashwin backed the Gujarat Titans (GT) captain Shubman Gill for the unorthodox manner in which he used pace bowler Prasidh Krishna during the three-wicket loss against the Punjab Kings (PBKS) as well. He was the pick of the bowlers with figures of 3-29, but came only in the 13th over in Mullanpur, on Tuesday, March 31 as well.

“I was hearing a lot about Prasidh Krishna’s bowling entry point, but I have a different point of view here. If we look at the first innings where PBKS stopped GT in the middle overs, at that time also Vijaykumar Vyshak was sent in late. The old ball was skidding and it was a little stuck off the surface as well. Cooper Connolly also plays the hard length well against pace because he is Australian. In the end, I thought it was a good decision,” R Ashwin said on his YouTube channel.

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“Till GT had not brought Prasidh Krishna into the attack, it seemed like PBKS will win the match easily, but they did not. He put the brakes on them, and from there the game started getting a little tight,” he further added.

However, GT primarily used the pace trio of Siraj, Rabada, and debutant Ashok Sharma in the powerplay phase as well. Despite picking up the early wicket of Priyansh Arya, they were put under pressure by Prabhsimran Singh and Cooper Connolly as well.

“He came at the right time, took wickets and kept us in the game until the 17th and 18th over. All ifs and buts, but at that time, we thought, you know, with the wicket going a little bit slow, maybe a bowler who’s quick and skinny might get us a few wickets. And he was bowling pretty well in the nets. So that was the thought process behind it,” Gill said during the post-match presentation (via Cricbuzz).