'I'll Be Made The Villain': When An Uncapped Indian Bowler Refused To Follow Ashwin's Order

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Ravichandran Ashwin is not only one of the best spinners currently but is also known for his strong take on 'Mankading' after his controversy with Jos Buttler during IPL 2019. Ashwin ran Buttler out, who was at non-strikers' end and tried to gain an unfair advantage. 

The off-spinner, who was captaining Kings XI Punjab in that season, revealed an incident where he instructed Ankit Rajpoot to run the non-striker out if an opportunity comes during a match against Mumbai Indians. However, Rajpoot, a young uncapped fast bowler, was hesitant to follow the order. 

“After the incident happened against Rajasthan (Buttler Mankading), in the next match we were playing Mumbai. The last-wicket pair of Rahul Chahar and Alzarri Joseph were batting. One ball and two runs to win. I went to the bowler Ankit Rajpoot and told him, ‘These batsmen will be charging out to run. Just stop and send them back in if he (non-striker) starts running before you deliver," Ashwin revealed on his youtube show DRS With Ash. 

He was scared and said, ‘No way, I won’t do that,” Ashwin recalled Rajpoot saying.

“Why won’t you do that? I will back you. Please do it,” Ashwin said.

Rajpoot although agreed at first but “froze when he came to deliver”.

“He came and said to me, ‘If I do this, it will create controversy and I will be made the villain,” Ashwin said. “I told him, ‘what you are doing here is correct. The non-striker is at fault here.”

Ankit Rajpoot remained indecisive and did not 'Mankad' despite the non-striker being 'halfway down the ground', as Ashwin described it. Mumbai Indians ended up winning the match.