‘Jokes become news’ – Ashwin optimistic about Mankad conversation with Ponting
R Ashwin has opened up on his brief conversation with Ricky Ponting regarding the ‘Mankad’ mode of dismissal, saying the Australian’s comments got lost in translation.
Ashwin ran out Jos Buttler at the non-striker’s end when he backed up too much in the IPL last year, once again sparking discussions on the mode of dismissal. Ponting, Ashwin’s coach at Delhi Capitals, warned him against using the method recently, but the off-spinner suggested that the Australian made those comments in jest.
A free ball for the bowlers? 🤔
What do you make of it? pic.twitter.com/wBqpaGFEnj
— Wisden India (@WisdenIndia) August 24, 2020
“Ricky Ponting hasn’t yet reached (Dubai),” Ashwin said on his YouTube channel. “When he comes, we will sit for a chat with him. We have already spoken over the phone. It was very refreshing and an interesting chat.
“What happens sometimes is Australians’ messages in English get lost in translation and reach us with a different meaning. Even their humour or jokes become news for us. We’ll talk about this in detail with Ricky next week.”
Dinesh Karthik on you-know-what 😉
Do you agree with him? pic.twitter.com/HcyWfjW9SN
— Wisden India (@WisdenIndia) August 24, 2020
Ponting, while in conversation with The Grade Cricketer Podcast, had revealed instructing the Delhi Capitals players last season against using the ‘Mankad’ and said he will have a similar conversation with Ashwin ahead of the 2020 IPL.
“I’ll be having a chat with him about [Mankad], that’s the first thing I’ll do,” he said. “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’.”
