India off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin has come up with an interesting idea to avoid non-striker’s taking an early advantage by walking out of the crease before the ball is delivered.

Ashwin’s suggestion came on the back of Sanjay Manjrekar’s article on the Hindustan Times, where the former batsman noted that the free hit had to be eliminated to make the game fairer to bowlers.

“Free hit is another thing I want gone, again terribly unfair on the bowlers,” Manjrekar wrote in his column. “Today with the TV umpire monitoring no balls, a bowler has to be a centimeter over and immediately a string of punishments are meted out to him.

Hi guys, tell me what you think about some aspects of the game mentioned in this column that have me peeved a little bit.
Also let me know what rule changes you would make to better your viewing experience. Will retweet the interesting ones. 😊 https://t.co/HpEze6DYgp

— Sanjay Manjrekar (@sanjaymanjrekar) May 28, 2021

“The bowler has to bowl an extra ball for starters, the batter cannot be out to that no ball already bowled, and there is also a penalty of one run. To add to that, there is a free hit offered to the batsman next ball in which he cannot be out. The penalty is just not commensurate to the ‘wrongful’ act. It’s as if the rule was introduced by a sadist who hated bowlers.”

Manjrekar asked for other law change suggestions to make the game a better experience for viewers and Ashwin promptly brought up an innovative, alternative idea, pointing out that the “free hit” was actually a good marketing tool.

“Let’s add a free ball for the bowlers every time a batter leaves the non strikers end early, a wicket of that ball will reduce 10 runs of the bowlers analysis and total,” Ashwin tweeted.

Remember: “you are supposed to leave the crease only after the ball leaves the hand”

— Mask up and take your vaccine🙏🙏🇮🇳 (@ashwinravi99) May 28, 2021

“Remember: you are supposed to leave the crease only after the ball leaves the hand,” Ashwin added to his point, advocating, once again, his stance on non-strikers remaining inside the crease.

Cricket has a provision for bowlers to run batsmen out at the non-striker’s end – popularly known as a ‘Mankad’ dismissal – if they take an early advantage, but that is often criticised for being against the spirit of the game.

Ashwin has been a strong advocate of running batsmen out at the non-striker’s end with his mankading of Jos Buttler creating a massive controversy two seasons ago in the IPL.

Recently, Ashwin also revealed in his YouTube show, DRS with Ash, to Murali Kartik that during his stint with the Punjab Kings in the IPL, he had asked Ankit Rajpoot to run the non-striker out in a game against Mumbai Indians, but the bowler refused fearing a controversy.