The incident happened during the second ODI between Bangladesh and New Zealand in Dhaka.
Bangladesh medium-pacer Hasan Mahmud dislodged the bails when Ish Sodhi was backing up too far at the non-striker’s end.
After being declared out by the third umpire, Sodhi was walking towards to the pavilion. However, Bangladesh’s stand-in skipper Litton Das decided to withdraw the appeal and the Kiwi cricketer made his way back to the crease.
Ish Sodhi was moved by the gesture of the Bangladesh team as he hugged Hasan Mahmud in the middle before resuming his innings.
Reacting to the incident, South African batting legend AB de Villiers has slammed Litton's decision to call back Sodhi.
“Something that is irritating me at the moment is the rule of the run out when the batter is leaving the crease. Ish Sodhi was called back by the captain and I think, this is a little all over the place. I looked at the footage. If I get bowled, the captain can't feel sorry for me and call me back. Right? So, why would this rule allow the batters to be called back?” De Villiers said on his official YouTube channel.
“Where I am going with this is, I want the ICC to bring it into the rule that you can't call batters back. Make it a fair dismissal. There are too many grey areas. When you leave grey areas, it can be really sore on the eyes for the fans, and I find it really irritating and hurtful towards the game,” he added.
According to AB de Villiers, Litton calling Sodhi wasn't sportsmanship because it was a “fair dismissal” as per the ICC regulations.
“My advice would be, take the rule away that you can't call a batter back. If a bowler wants to run the batter out, take the dismissal off the rule book. If you are caught on the boundary, you are out. These are the rules of the game. You can't say, ''ah, he is my friend, call him back'. I don't see this as sportsmanship, I'm sorry. It's a fair dismissal, it's out. Walk off the field,” he remarked.