"What batting, what hitting, and what maturity" - Ravichandran Ashwin on PBKS captain Shikhar Dhawan's knock vs SRH

Ravichandran Ashwin recently lauded Punjab Kings (PBKS) skipper Shikhar Dhawan for his unbeaten 99-run knock against SunRisers Hyderabad (SRH) on Sunday, April 9.

While Ashwin praised Dhawan for his batting exploits, he also opined that the southpaw looked a bit annoyed while speaking to commentator Harsha Bhogle in a mid-innings interview.

Speaking on his YouTube channel, Ashwin stated:

"What batting, what hitting, and what maturity! In fact, in the mid-innings break, he seemed a bit annoyed while answering Harsha Bhogle's questions. They were eight down and Nathan Ellis played a reverse sweep against Markande at that time and got bowled. Shikhar Dhawan got really annoyed seeing that shot."

It is worth mentioning that Bhogle had questioned Shikhar Dhawan's strike rate after PBKS's clash against Rajasthan Royals (RR) earlier in the competition. Here's what he wrote on Twitter about the senior batter's scoring rate:

"Shikhar Dhawan's innings will raise, should raise, the question of whether you can have an anchor batter, especially in these conditions. You can appear to have increased your strike rate by the end, but the 30 balls at run-a-ball can hurt."

After scoring an unbeaten 99 off 66 balls, Dhawan cheekily roasted Bhogle during an interaction, asking him if he was now happy with his strike rate or not.

The opening batter has been in tremendous form in this year's IPL. Having mustered 225 from three outings, Dhawan is currently the highest run-scorer in the competition.

---

"He has played three games and hasn't looked the part so far" - Ravichandran Ashwin assesses Harry Brook's performances in IPL 2023

Ravichandran Ashwin further stated that while SRH shelled out a whopping ₹13.25 crore for Harry Brook at the IPL 2023 mini-auction, the English batter is yet to justify the hefty price tag.

The senior spinner suggested that it isn't easy for an overseas campaigner to do well straightaway in the cash-rich league, given that it is challenging to play in Indian conditions.

"They paid a lot of money to Harry Brook and bought him, right? See, the IPL is not an easy tournament. To come and start performing in Indian conditions is not that easy, and Harry Brook is finding that out. He has played three games and hasn't looked the part so far," he said.

Brook managed to score just 13 runs off 21 balls in SRH's opening fixture against RR. He was dismissed for three in the subsequent fixture against Lucknow Super Giants (LSG).

The right-handed batter was promoted to the opening spot in the game against PBKS. But he failed to turn things around, scoring 13 runs before getting out to Arshdeep Singh.

Brook will be under immense pressure when Hyderabad play Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) in Kolkata on Friday, April 14.