Despite India’s dominant seven-wicket victory in Raipur T20I against New Zealand, legendary spinner Ravichandran Ashwin highlighted glaring concern for the team heading into the T20 World Cup 2026.
Chasing 209 to win, the Men in Blue lost both openers, Sanju Samson (6) and Abhishek Sharma (0), early on in the innings before Ishan Kishan and Suryakumar Yadav joined forces to not only steady the ship but put the hosts in driver’s seat.
The duo added 122 runs for the third wicket in just 48 deliveries, with Kishan scoring 76 off 32 balls (11 fours and 4 sixes) and Suryakumar remaining unbeaten on 82 off 37 balls (9 fours and 4 sixes) to take India over the line in 15.2 overs.
Speaking on his YouTube channel, Ashwin pointed out the role played by dew in India’s win in the second T20I.
"The games can be played in the afternoon. Teams like New Zealand will not bother because they dont have many bowlers and they know that in such conditions nothing can be done. But in teams like India, if a player has not done well in two games and comes and bowls in such conditions in the third game and goes for runs, his career will be over. It is unfair to play in such conditions," Ashwin said.
"How will you fight such conditions as a bowler? We can plan better. If there is dew, at least play in the day. Or choose different venues. Other countries have a record of conditions, how the wicket will react, par scores etc for every ground. We must also have such records," he added.
According to Ashwin, dew can kill the beauty of the game and hoped that the Indian leg of the upcoming T20 World Cup would not be impacted by it.
"I really hope that the India leg matches of the T20 World Cup are not affected by dew. If it is, skill will go out of the window. I sincerely hope there is a little more due diligence on the dew factor in these venues. Once it comes in, you are dependent on the toss a lot. I don't want to see a multi-nation World Cup that will be dictated to a certain degree by dew. Skill should be at the fore," Ashwin stated.
"But when you see certain situations where people are also getting hammered because of conditions, if you have a bad day, the conditions should be like you can fight it out with hard work, but that is not happening. Dew can kill the beauty of the game," he further remarked.
With this victory, India gained a 2-0 lead in the five-match series. The third T20I will be played in Guwahati on Sunday (January 25).
