Former Punjab Kings (PBKS) captain R Ashwin revealed in a chat on his YouTube show DRS with Ash, that his then-teammate Ankit Rajpoot had refused to mankad a batsman during their clash with Mumbai Indians in the IPL 2019 fearing that he will be made a villain.
This was days after R Ashwin had shocked the world by running out or mankading Rajasthan Royals’ Jos Buttler during an IPL 2019 clash, which divided the cricket fraternity into two and many of the England and Australian media, former and current cricketers criticized Ashwin for his 'unsportsmanlike' conduct.
Ashwin stood his ground saying that it was as per the ICC and MCC rules of cricket and that batsmen shouldn’t be taking undue advantages and that he’ll do it again if batsmen try to be cheeky.
"After the incident happened against Rajasthan (Jos Buttler Mankading controversy), in the next match we were playing Mumbai. The last-wicket pair of Rahul Chahar and Alzarri Joseph were batting. One ball and two runs to win.
I went to the bowler Ankit Rajpoot and told him, ‘these batsmen will be charging out to run. Just stop and send them back in if he (non-striker) starts running before you deliver’. He was scared and said, ‘No way, I won’t do that,” Ashwin told Murali Kartik on the YouTube show DRS with Ash.
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“He (Rajpoot) froze when he came to deliver. He came and said to me, ‘If I do this, it will create controversy and I will be made the villain. I told him, ‘what you are doing here is correct. The non-striker is at fault here,” Ashwin added.
During the chat, Ashwin opened up about his views on Mankading and why he thinks it's unfair to criticize the bowler for stopping the batsmen who are looking to gain an unfair advantage.
"The batsman are so used to meandering along. Someone asking them to stay inside the crease itself looks like a hindrance to them. This is so wrong asking a bowler not to run batsmen out at the non-striker’s end. Especially, when the game is so competitive, I firmly believe that a bowler shouldn’t be stopped,” Ashwin elaborated.
