Among the bowlers, Australia pacer Nathan Ellis in particular has acquired a reputation of being consistent in T20 matches over the past few years. And the pacer has come in hot during the current BBL season, as he took a significant 3/30 against the Melbourne Renegades to secure Hobart Hurricanes’ victory, their fourth win of the season, on Monday, December 29.
The Hurricanes quickie has played all five games till now and has taken seven wickets in the season, which is just two wickets less than the joint-leading wicket-takers, Tom Curran and Haris Rauf. This brings to mind Ravichandran Ashwin’s comments about his chances of being part of IPL 2026 after he was retained by the Chennai Super Kings over Matheesha Pathirana.
Ashwin gives Ellis the green light for IPL 2026
In the course of discussing Ellis’ performance against the Renegades, where he got rid of the lethal Josh Brown for 26(13) in his first spell, followed by a terrific death bowling stint where he dismissed Will Sutherland and Adam Zampa by giving only 15 in the last two overs, Ashwin noted Ellis’ great control over the change of pace and nailed on yorkers that ultimately led to the visitors being restricted to 162 runs.
“The guys in yellow will be thrilled with his progress. 4-0-30-3 was his figure for Hobart Hurricanes today. More importantly, he was 2-0-15-2 at the death, bowling 17 and 20, hitting his yorkers and change of pace right. It’s pretty safe to say that the two overs of Ellis are booked at the ‘Pauk’ during the death for the summer of 26?,” tweeted the ex-CSK spinner on his X (Twitter) profile.
He has also claimed figures of 1/39, 2/43, and 1/31 in the previous matches during the season so far, thereby showing off his wicket-taking capability, which was very much evident at Punjab Kings’ camp in 2023 where he bagged 13 wickets in 10 matches.
Though he has played just one game each in IPL 2024 and 2025, his limited-overs bowling has only improved, and the regularity of getting crucial wickets will greatly contribute if he gets a chance in the coming season. Interestingly, he wrapped up 2025 as the leading wicket-taker from Australia with 18 wickets in 12 games at a slightly more than 8 economy rate
