"My respect for him has grown multi-fold…"- Ravichandran Ashwin reacts to Nitish Rana-Digvesh Rathi fight in DPL 2025

Ravichandran Ashwin lauded Nitish Rana for not blaming Digvesh Rathi for the fight.

Former Indian spinner Ravichandran Ashwin has lauded Nitish Rana for not blaming Digvesh Rathi for the fight during the Eliminator clash of the Delhi Premier League (DPL) 2025. During the encounter between South Delhi Superstaz and West Delhi Lions, Rana and Rathi had a brutal verbal altercation.

Rana hit Rathi for a six and imitated his notebook celebration. As Rathi uttered a few words, both of them engaged in a verbal fight. As Rana charged towards Rathi, other players and the umpire calmed both players.

Notably, Rana slammed an unbeaten century in the match to drive West Delhi Lions to victory by seven wickets. He also spoke about the incident later; however, he did not blame Rathi for the fight.

My respect for Nitish Rana has grown multi-fold: Ravichandran Ashwin

Speaking on his YouTube channel, Ashwin reacted to the Rana-Rathi fight in DPL 2025. He lauded Rana for not blaming Rathi for the fight and deflecting the question.

“My respect for Nitish Rana has grown multi-fold. As a spectacle, we all like to see this, but the matter of fact is that we don’t have to character assassinate anyone. It showed the real character of the man. It is very easy to bring someone down when you are in the euphoria of a win. But he chose not to do that. He gave the right response, and that was amazing,” he said.

“It was Rana’s day. He hit 15 sixes. After the game, he was asked ‘What happened?’ The way he handled it was amazing. He said the fault could have been his or Digvesh’s. But he said he was playing to help his team win, and Digvesh was doing that for his team,” he added.

“That spirit and heat are needed to play this game. It was easy for him to throw dirt on Digvesh Rathi, but he didn’t do it and deflected the question,” Ashwin further said.

Meanwhile, Nitish Rana-led West Delhi Lions also won the title in DPL 2025. After crushing South Delhi Superstarz in the Eliminator, they defeated East Delhi Riders in the Qualifier 2 and Central Delhi Kings in the final.

Rana finished as fourth highest run-scorer in the tournament, with 393 runs in 11 games at an average of 65.50 and a strike rate of 181.94.

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