Indian legendary off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin has lately released a comprehensive statement, offering his opinions on the ongoing debate around ‘Mankading.’ In his remark, Ashwin highlighted that if a situation came where important personalities like Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma, Joe Root, or any other key players were run out during the crucial phases of a game, it might lead to big chaos.
Here is what Ashwin wrote on X, (previously Twitter): “This is a fair assessment of the situation. Imagine someone running out Kohli, Rohit, Smith, Root, or any crucial batter at the nonstrikers in the World Cup semi-final or a crunch game that will decide qualification.”
“I am sure hell will break loose and there will be a character assassination campaign by some experts who still don’t agree with it and of course, fans that are on the receiving end.”
Further, he wrote, “At the moment not all teams are doing it but come the World Cup, I really hope everyone is ready for it cos taking a moral high stand and saying we won’t do it, should open a strategic window for the other teams and genuinely teams should take every single advantage coming their way because winning a World Cup is a lifetime achievement.”
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Ashwin also contributed a solution to the problem, he said:
“There is only one solution, whoever be the batter and whatever be the magnitude of the situation, the batter needs to watch the bowler load the ball up and rotate his shoulder before taking off and if he doesn’t do that and gets out, we should applaud the bowler and tell the batsmen that he can do better.”
Ashwin found himself in the center of a heated dispute when he adopted the ‘Mankad’ approach to dismiss Jos Buttler during the 2019 IPL season for the first time. This action established a trend as other players too resorted to such dismissals, fueling the fires of controversy. The Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) stepped in many times, addressing the situation and making amendments to the regulations.
A recent example saw Pakistan’s versatile player, Shadab Khan, suffering a similar destiny at a vital juncture in a match against Afghanistan. The Afghanistan fast bowler, Fazalhaq Farooqi, resorted to a ‘Mankad’ to dismiss Shadab Khan.
