“All the crowd would have been hoping that I gave him [the strike] and finished the game, and he would have finished it. But it’s just about getting the job done. He’s finished so many games to CSK, and I’m sure there’s plenty more to come.”
Devon Conway was out injured and that allowed Ravindra to open the batting for a majority of IPL 2024. At the mega auction before this season, CSK brought back Conway and used the right to match card for Ravindra, with the latter chosen to open the batting. The move worked with Ravindra scoring an unbeaten 45-ball 65 in the 156-run chase.
“A few days ago, I guess, and Flem’s [head coach Stephen Fleming] quite good at those comms,” Ravindra said about when he got to know that he would open the batting this season. “It’s always an honour to open for CSK knowing the history of it. And you look back at the heroes like the [Michael] Husseys, the [Shane] Watsons, the [Brendon] McCullums, the [Faf] du Plessis, the Rutus [Ruturaj Gaikwad]. I feel like I’m missing a few names there… [Matthew] Haydens, the Conways.
“It’s certainly an honour. They have been guys who’ve done so well. I’m definitely grateful to be in this role. We’ll take a game by game and we know it’s long tournament. So, we’ll just see what happens.”
Ravindra added 67 for the second wicket with captain Ruturaj Gaikwad to set the tone. He saw off a tricky period where CSK endured a middle-order collapse by batting steadily. He then picked up pace, hitting two sixes off left-arm wristspinner Vignesh Puthur in the 18th over, and stayed unbeaten to see his side through.
“It hasn’t been too much training because I’ve been playing a lot of cricket, especially in the Champions Trophy,” he said. “So it’s been nice to have that [familiarity] coming to similar-ish conditions. That’s been a cool bit of prep.
“[Last season] probably didn’t go as well as I would have wanted at the end. But slowly starting to find a wee bit of a tempo in that last game against [Royal Challengers] Bangalore, in Bangalore and hopefully may continue. Look, we know T20 is a fickle game, and results go up and down. But hopefully I can bat the way I want to and hit good cricket shots and it results in wins for our CSK.”
