New Delhi: Ravichandran Ashwin has been all over headlines during the Day 2 of the third Test between India and England at the Niranjan Shah Stadium in Rajkot, on February 16. Be it for taking 500 wickets or withdrawing from the third Test due to a family emergency. However, he was also at the center of a controversy for running on the protected area of the pitch that even cost Team India 5 penalty runs.
During the 16th over of Day 2, Ashwin was warned by umpires for running on the protected area and as it was a second offence from the Indian team, the visitors were gifted 5 free runs. Earlier, Jadeja received a warning from umpires for the same, which was the first offence. However, the former England skipper, Alastair Cook believes Ashwin did this purposely to gain advantage during his chance of bowling.
“Is it deliberate? Yes, it is. It’s a tactical ploy that you can disturb the middle of the wicket because Ashwin wants as much help [as possible] when he can bowl. Normally, it happens in the third innings. You’re 150-200 runs ahead and you think, ‘just make sure you get up and down the wicket’… that was gamesmanship there, wasn’t it?” Cook said while sharing his insights with TNT Sports.
However, Ashwin totally denied the allegations from Cook and blamed his poor motor skills for it. “They clearly warned some of our batters (on Thursday) for running on the pitch. I was aware of it, but my poor motor skills didn’t allow me to get off the pitch in time. If the English media and players think it was on purpose, it wasn’t. If that’s how they want to treat it, so be it. I went to (on-field umpires) Joel (Wilson) and Kumar (Dharmasena) and said ‘that’s pure poor motor skills. If I was any better, I would have been in the Olympics. Why play cricket,” Ashwin was quoted by Dailymail.
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