During the 2022 edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL), R Ashwin impressed one and all with his batting exploits.

The veteran spinner was promoted to No. 3 by Rajasthan Royals (RR) on quite a few occasions and he didn’t let his franchise down, producing multiple clutch knocks.

Thanks to his all-round exploits in the IPL 2022, Ashwin made his comeback in the Indian T20I team after seven months for the ongoing series against West Indies.

On Friday (July 29), the seasoned campaigner made his presence felt in the T20I series opener versus West Indies. While he returned with the figures of 2/22 in his four overs, he also scored 13* off 10 balls as India registered a massive 68-run victory.

After the game, Ashwin interacted with Dinesh Karthik for bcci.tv and talked about his batting improvement.

“Cameo was fine. I have been working on my batting. Even before the game, I communicated with you (Karthik) as to what we will be doing if we are batting together. A little bit more communication, understanding and learning on the go with the batting is starting to help me a lot more," said Ashwin.

"(I am) understanding game situations. Even today (Friday), I came on the ground and asked you how you would hit those balls that are slightly slower, off-pace and back of length," he added.

During his unbeaten knock, Ashwin was also involved in an unbroken 52-run partnership with Karthik, who finished with 41 not out off just 19 balls, propelling India to a massive 190/6 in 20 overs.

Talking about his batting, Karthik said that as a designated finisher he has to be quick in assessing the situation.

"I think both [mental and game] Ash. When you bat in the middle order, especially at the back end of the game, you need to be very quick on your feet in terms of assessing conditions, assessing the ball, what are the kind of shots you can play.

"If you see when you came in, Jadeja had just got out, that was a very critical phase of the game, that would have been the difference between a 165 and a 190. We stitched a very clever partnership I thought, running hard in between and then at the back end exploding and making sure that we get those boundaries but till then there was a phase where we had to absorb the pressure , which I though we did well," he remarked.

With this victory, Team India took a 1-0 lead in the five-match T20I series. The second T20I will be played in St Kitts on Monday (August 1).