Who is Ashton Turner: The man who turned the match around for Australia in the 4th ODI
The 26-year-old batting all-rounder from Western Australia, played a fantastic knock against India in the 4th ODI to level the ongoing series 2-2. He smacked 84 runs off 43 deliveries which included half-a-dozen big sixes and five fours. His tremendous knock helped the Aussies chase down a mammoth total of 359 (5th highest successful target ever chased in ODIs and Australia's highest successful chase ever in ODIs).
Though it was just his second match after making his ODI debut in the first one-day at Hyderabad, he made the situation look as easy as possible. The best part about his innings was the way he plundered runs hitting boundaries from the bowling of top Indian bowlers be it Jasprit Bumrah, Bhuvaneswar Kumar, Kuldeep Yadav, and Yuzvendra Chahal, bagging the man of the match award for his heroics.
Turner plays for Perth Scorchers in the Big Bash League and has been an important member of the side ever since he has joined them. He was also their stand-in captain for the 2018-19 season. Unlike his poor record as a captain, he had a good show with the bat scoring 378 runs from 14 games, which earned him a spot in the Australian squad. He is a capable off-spinner but is yet to bowl in ODIs.
Turner made his domestic debut for Western Australia in the 2012-13 season before representing them in the Under-17 and Under-19 category. He was Australia's lead spinner in the 2012 Under-19 World Cup and bagged 11 wickets from 6 matches. He made his T20I debut for Australia back in February 2017 against Sri Lanka in a home series at Melbourne and has played 5 T20Is since then. He has so far scored over 4000+ runs and taken more than 30 wickets in his professional cricket career.
He will be featuring for Rajasthan Royals in the upcoming season of Indian Premier League (IPL). Rajasthan Royals bought Turner at a bargain price of ₹50 lacs, a stealer deal for sure. It was expected that he would have played for the Royals as a back-up for Ben Stokes but this innings of his and his ability to tackle the spinners and finishing matches made him a probable contender in Australia's World Cup Squad.