Jos Buttler and Ravichandran Ashwin are set to share the same dressing room for Rajasthan Royals (RR) in the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2022. The Indian spinner was picked up by the inaugural season champions for a decent price of INR 5 crores at the mega auction.
Notably, the duo was engaged in the infamous mankading incident during IPL 2019 and the 35-year-old was associated with the Punjab team.
“Hello everyone, I got picked by Rajasthan Royals earlier today. I’m extremely delighted that they picked me. They tried hard to get me in the last auction in 2018 but it came through finally. I’ve got a great rapport with all of them. Shared a wonderful rapport with Sanju as well so, looking forward to giving my complete best for the franchise and hopefully do some special things over the course of the next three years.
“Looking forward to bowling alongside Yuzi. It’s going to be a lot of fun. And most importantly, looking forward to sharing the dressing room with Jos. How good is that going to be? All things done? Halla Bol,” Ashwin said as he joined the Royals.
Jos Buttler comes up with cheeky response to Ashwin’s entry
In a video posted by the Rajasthan-based franchise on Twitter, Buttler said: “Hey Ash, Jos here. Don’t worry I am inside the crease, cannot wait to see you in pink for the Royals. Look forward to sharing the dressing room with you.”
On the other hand, RR CEO Jake Lush McCrum revealed that he had spoken to the Englishman about the franchise’s intention to go after Ashwin at the mega auction.
“We spoke to Jos prior to the auction and just talked through all of our prioritisation of players. Honestly, he didn’t even think about it (his run-out by Ashwin at the non-striker’s end in 2019). I had to sort of bring it up to just check it was okay. And he said ‘it’s absolutely fine’,” he said at a media interaction in Bengaluru.
Jake added: “Maybe he will have to practice in the nets with him. But otherwise on the field, they’re looking forward to playing together.”
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