Sydney, (Asian independent) Former Australia skipper Ricky Ponting is not in favour of ‘Mankading’ and has said that he will have a chat with off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin when he plays for the Delhi Capitals in the upcoming edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL).
England batsman Buttler was ‘Mankaded’ by Ashwin at a crucial moment in last year’s IPL season during a match between Kings XI Punjab and Rajasthan Royals. The manner of the dismissal had created ripples across the cricketing fraternity and beyond, with many former greats of the game lambasting the Indian off-spinner for breaching the ‘spirit of the game’.
“I’ll be having a chat with him (Ashwin) about (mankad), that’s the first thing I’ll do,” Delhi Capitals head coach Ponting said while speaking on The Grade Cricketer Podcast.
“Obviously, he wasn’t in our squad last year, he’s one of our players that we tried 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’.”
Ashwin, who was bought by the Delhi Capitals at the IPL 2020 held last year, had defended his decision to run out Buttler, saying his “conscience was clear”. However, the Delhi Capitals head coach is confident that the veteran Indian off-spinner will take the advice in his stride.
“So, that’s going to be a conversation and that’s going to be a hard conversation I will have to have with him, but I’m pretty sure he’ll take it on the chin,” he added.
The IPL 2020 will kickstart from September 19 in the UAE. The tournament will be played across three venues in Abu Dhabi, Dubai and Sharjah, with the final slated for November 10.