Rajasthan Royals mentor Shane Warne has slammed Ravichandran Ashwin for his ‘Mankad’ of English batsman Jos Buttler in their opening match against Kings XI Punjab in Jaipur on Monday.
Taking to Twitter shortly after the dismissal, Warne said he was “disappointed” in Ashwin as a “captain & as a person”, and called the act “disgraceful & low”.
Warne also held the view that Ashwin’s “embarrassing and disgraceful act” was symptomatic of a win at all costs mentality in cricket, and had to stop to protect the integrity and spirit of the game, and in order to set an example for youngsters watching the game.
Lastly, Warne further expressed his disappointment at the manner of Buttler’s dismissal, saying he thought Ashwin had “integrity & class”.
At the time of the dismissal, Buttler was batting on 69 off 43 balls, putting the home side in a strong position to go on and chase the target of 185. However, Ashwin whipped the bails off at the non-striker’s end when in his delivery stride before loading, while Buttler was out of the crease.
The moment turned out to be pivotal as Royals went on to suffer a collapse and ended their innings with a whimper on 170/9.
In the post-match presentation ceremony, Ashwin defended his decision to dismiss Buttler the way he did, saying it was perfectly within the rules of the game.
“On my part it was very instinctive and it was not planned or anything like that,” Ashwin said. “It is there in the rules of the game. I don’t know where the understanding of the spirit of the game comes from because quite naturally if it’s there in the rules, it’s there.
“So probably the rules need to go back and be sorted. I didn’t even load and he left the crease. It’s always been my take on it, because it’s my half of the crease.
“We ended on the right side of it but those things are game-changers and batsmen need to be wary of it.”
Meanwhile, Royals captain Ajinkya Rahane avoided offering his view on the dismissal, saying, “We are not supposed to comment on a controversial issue. The match referee will take the call.”
