Ravi Ashwin responds to Gautam Gambhir's sarcastic 'sportsmanship' tweet on David Warner's six

The discussion of the spirit of cricket has seen a new chapter getting added. This time it is Gautam Gambhir who has started a conversation that is doing rounds on Twitter. The incident which he has thought to give an opinion on happened during the semi-final of the Men’s T20 World Cup 2021. 

For the 8th over of the Australian innings, Pakistan skipper Babar Azam handed the ball to Mohammad Hafeez. The off-spinner failed to land the ball at the right place as the ball slipped out of his hand and turned into a half-tracker. The ball then bounced twice or thrice moving away from the surface of the pitch. 

David Warner who was on strike knew that the ball would be called a no-ball and he couldn’t possibly get out of it. He instead decided to reach out for the delivery from almost outside the pitch and get it a full-blown hit as the ball went to the stands for a six. The umpire called it a no-ball, costing Pakistan seven runs without a single legal ball and a free-hit of the next delivery. 

Now, Gambhir on Twitter posted a picture of David Warner doing it. He sarcastically said, “What an absolutely pathetic display of spirit of the game by Warner! #Shameful What say @ashwinravi99?” This is simply a call back to the whole incident of Ravichandran Ashwin and Eoin Morgan which happened during the second leg of the IPL 2021. 

I want to see if they tweet about it: Gautam Gambhir to Ricky Ponting and Shane Warne

In fact, according to another tweet, in the post-match show of Star Sports, the main broadcasters for the T20 World Cup 2021, Gambhir said, “Ricky Ponting, Shane Warne talk a lot about Sportsmanship, let’s see what they’ve to say about David Warner Six. The ball slipped from Hafeez’s hand Warner shouldn’t have done that, he stole 6 runs, I want to see if they tweet about it.”

Gautam Gambhir –

"Ricky Ponting, Shane Warne talk a lot about Sportsmanship, let's see what they've to say about David Warner Six.
Ball slipped from Hafeez's hand Warner shouldn't have done that,
he stole 6 runs, I want to see if they tweet about it "#T20WorldCup #PAKvAUS pic.twitter.com/Cui0efrt6C

— HashTag Cricket ♞ (@TheYorkerBall) November 11, 2021

Replying to Gambhir’s tweet, famous Australian journalist and cricket writer Peter Lalor wrote, “Bad take Gautam,” as if to say that the call made by Gambhir wasn’t correct. Ashwin came out in Gambhir’s defense saying, “His point is that if this is right, that was right. If that was wrong, this is wrong too. Fair assessment?” As a matter of fact, in another Tweet, Ashwin praised Warner’s shot. 

What the Indian off-spinner meant to say was if this incident isn’t wrong, how did Ashwin’s taking an extra run back in that game was wrong. And if this is right then why isn’t that right. 

Bad take Gautam.

— Peter Lalor (@plalor) November 12, 2021

His point is that if this is right , that was right. If that was wrong , this is wrong too. Fair assessment? @plalor

— Ashwin 🇮🇳 (@ashwinravi99) November 12, 2021