Ashwin will play for Delhi Capitals under Ponting in the upcoming IPL.
Delhi Capitals (DC) head coach Ricky Ponting made it clear that R Ashwin won't be allowed to use the mankading dismissal under him at the franchise. Ashwin joined DC ahead of the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2020 after leading Kings XI Punjab (KXIP) for two years.
Ashwin had mankaded Jos Buttler in the last IPL during a match between KXIP and Rajasthan Royals (RR). It turned out to be a very controversial move that got slammed by the English cricket fraternity and other ex-cricketers. But Ashwin did get support and even social media stood by Ashwin for mankad.
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Speaking on The Grade Cricketer Podcast, Ponting said, “I’ll be having a chat with him about [mankad], that’s the first thing I’ll do. Obviously, he wasn’t in our squad last year, he’s one of our players that we tried to afford to bring in this year.
"Look, he’s a terrific bowler, and he’s done a great job in the IPL for a long period of time now, but I must admit watching that last season, as soon as it happened and he did that, I actually sat our boys down and said ‘Look, I know he’s done it, there’ll be others around the tournament who’ll think about doing this well but that’s not going to be the way that we play our cricket. We won’t be doing that’.”
Fans on Twitter didn't agree with Ponting and supported Ashwin once again.
Here is how Twitter reacted: