Ashwin Dismisses Iyer Narrative, Names Players Who Made Real Impact

Indian star spinner Ravichandran Ashwin has pushed back the narrative around Shreyas Iyer. Instead, he listed players who affected the PBKS vs MI fixture outcome.

Punjab Kings defeated Mumbai Indians to reach the IPL 2025 final on Sunday. Punjab skipper Shreyas Iyer made a huge contribution with his unbeaten 87 off 41 deliveries. Watching his jolting innings, everyone started to praise him, attributing the win to him.

However, Ravichandran Ashwin rejected the Iyer narrative as he pointed out three players who had a real impact but didn’t get enough credit.

‘But the game-changing batter was…’

Ashwin stated that while Iyer was significant in the run, his popularity denied other players the deserved credit for the win. He said that Nehal Wadhera, Josh Inglis, and Priyansh Arya did not get enough credit.

“I definitely appreciate Shreyas for a couple of shots – that six over extra cover against Ashwini Kumar off a free hit. Whenever they needed a boundary, he got it. But the game-changing batter was Josh Inglis, along with Nehal Wadhera. Iyer is popular, so the credit that needs to go to Inglis and Wadhera might not end up going. But he played a 20-run over against Bumrah in the powerplay.”

“They got Bumrah to stop the run-scoring and get a wicket. But not only did he not get a wicket, he was also hit for 20 runs. How did he do it? Inglis scored a six against the slower ball on the leg side, then waited to hit one over third man. The moment that the slower one went for a six, Bumrah did not have any option. He had to go hard length into the pitch. That one particular over changed the tide of the game,” he said.

Runway Superstar in PBKS

Ashwin also talked about Priyansh Arya, saying that he might soon make a debut for the Indian team after IPL 2025 heroics.

“There is also a runaway superstar in the Punjab team, and we might see a lot of him in Indian cricket—Priyansh Arya. If you noticed today, he got out in the powerplay, but scored 20 off 10 balls. MI got two wickets in the powerplay, but his knock gave Punjab the momentum and gave Iyer the luxury to stay on course with Wadhera.”

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