Ravichandran Ashwin has said the ‘Mankad’ incident in which he ran out Jos Buttler while he was backing up at the non-strikers end in a 2019 IPL match was “blown out of proportion”.
Ashwin controversially ran out Buttler who looked set with 69 runs from 51 balls during Rajasthan Royals’ narrow defeat to King Punjab XI in March 2019. The 33-year-old faced significant criticism with England bowler James Anderson saying the ‘Mankad’ dismissal was “not the done thing”. However, the off-spinner has always stood by his actions, and received support from former Australia captain Michael Clarke who said the wicket was “within the rules.”
In an interview on Cricbuzz’s YouTube channel, the India all-rounder was given a choice of six different houses, containing cricketers he would hypothetically spend the rest of lockdown with. Ashwin chose house three with Buttler, Australia Test captain Tim Paine and India teammate Rishabh Pant. But he admitted he would love the opportunity to talk with the England World Cup winner.
“My conversation with Jos would not be about justifying why I was right or why he was right and actually feeling aggrieved about it,” he said. “But it would be centred more around how you’ve got to differentiate [between] cricket and life in general.”
[breakout id=”0″][/breakout] Rajasthan were 108-1 in the 12th over of their chase when Kings XI captain Ashwin stopped in his bowling action and ran out Buttler on 69. The dismissal, known as a Mankad after India all-rounder Vinoo Mankad, who ran out Australia batsman Bill Brown in 1947, is within the laws of the game. “Sometimes [I feel] what I did to him during that game is blown out of proportion in terms of character assassination,” added Ashwin. “Which is quite silly if truth has to be told. I haven’t earned a level one demerit point in my whole career. What I did is what the rules are supposed to be.”
