Rajasthan Royals captain Rahul Dravid clarified that pacer S Sreesanth was rested for the match against Mumbai Indians in the sixth edition of Indian Premier League with the aim of managing the workload of players and not due to the presence of Harbhajan Singh.
Sreesanth and Harbhajan were supposed to meet for the first time in the Indian Premier League on Wednesday after the former reopened the 'slapgate' wounds with his fiery tweets.
Sreesanth, who achieved figures of 2-20 off his four overs against Kings XI in Royals' in the preceding game against Kings XI Punjab, was amazingly prohibited out of the match against Mumbai. He was replaced with spinner Ankeet Chavan.
Dravid asserted at the post-match press conference on Wednesday night that there was nothing like the 'Bhajji factor’ behind Sreesanth's omission. He added that Sreesanth has played four matches and has performed well. They still have a long way to go and they want to keep him fit throughout this long tournament. He cannot play all the matches.
Sreesanth revived the 2008 ‘Slapgate’ incident a few days ago by making explosive remarks that the entire incident was preplanned and his former India team-mate Harbhajan Singh was a "backstabbing person”.
Dravid agreed that their strategies worked to perfection regarding Rajasthan's ardent 87-run win over the difficult Mumbai Indians. He revealed that the first six overs in their batting and bowling were decisive. Shane Watson and Ajinkya Rahane had scored 62 on board and while defending, they shrank Mumbai to 26 for 2 by taking the important wickets of Sachin Tendulkar and Ricky Ponting. This helped them to tighten the noose.
Dravid astoundingly commenced the bowling spree with two spinners Ankeet Chavan and Ajit Chandila and his trick actually worked. While Chandila took the vital wickets of Tendulkar and Ponting, Chavan gave away 10 runs from his three overs.
Dravid clarified that people tend to believe that he is traditional in his approach but they have opened the attack with Chandila and Chavan previously also. They have promoted Dishant Yagnik up the order and the trick worked as he gave the much needed power to the innings. He claimed that there is no fixed slot. If they had lost wickets rapidly, he himself would have come in as number three. But, with runs on the board they felt that a left hander like Dishant Yagnik can give them the momentum and he realized his expectation.
It is well known that Dravid has scored two half centuries till date in the tournament. However, against Mumbai, he had sent Dishant who scored 24-ball 34-runs.
