I want to be a fly on the wall when Ricky Ponting and Ravi Ashwin confront each other: Aakash Chopra

Ricky Ponting recently criticised Ravi Ashwin for ‘Mankading’ Jos Buttler last year. The former Kings XI Punjab (KXIP) captain had dismissed the Rajasthan Royals’ batter, running him out at the non-striker’s end. The spinner was traded last year to the Delhi Capitals and Ricky Ponting is the coach at the franchise. The former Australian captain said in an interview that such an act cannot happen under his leadership and he will have a word with Ashwin about the same.

Aakash Chopra, the former Indian batsman, has now taken made some hilarious comments on the whole scenario. The former Delhi captain has said that he would love to be a part of Delhi Capitals’ dressing room while both the cricketers are discussing the matter.

“I want to be a fly on the wall when Ricky Ponting and R Ashwin confront each other on Mankading. I know Ashwin, he is a very strong character who sticks to his beliefs, so he is going to have an objection and Ponting is not going to allow it.

“Ricky Ponting, the Australian captain is saying that it is against the ethics, that you should not Mankad anyone and his team will not be doing that and he would be talking with Ravichandran Ashwin regarding that.” the former opening batsman said on his Youtube channel.

The reputed commentator recalled the dismissal last year when Ashwin was criticised a lot because of the manner of the dismissal.

“The story started last year when Rajasthan Royals was playing Kings XI Punjab where Ravichandran Ashwin stopped in his action, took a long pause during which Buttler left the crease and Ashwin removed the bails and he got given out in the end.”

Chopra observed that ICC first took the stand for Ashwin but later they changed their statement. The debate was whether Ashwin’s halt before disrupting the bails meant that he is pulling out of the delivery or not.

Harsha Bhogle also tweeted about the same last year:

My final point on this. Ashwin ran Buttler out. It went to the 3rd umpire who is on the ICC Elite panel. He looked at the replays & said the non-striker was out. He is the custodian of the laws & playing conditions. So irrespective of what Ashwin did, it was the umpire's decision

— Harsha Bhogle (@bhogleharsha) March 25, 2019

Aakash Chopra’s views on Mankading

Chopra, however, feels that there is no sense of having a debate about whether Ashwin’s action was in the spirit of the game or not. Ponting’s stand is that Ashwin should have warned the batsman but if something is a part of the laws, then notifying can never be a compulsion.

“Ricky Ponting is coming from the perspective that you are taking a little start and not trying to steal a single and it is the duty of the bowler to warn the batsman. But the other side is that there are some laws of cricket. So if the law has been made that when you go out, you can be dismissed from behind, then why a warning in such a case.”