R Ashwin – What have you done!
Ashwin became the biggest villain of international cricket when he “Mankaded” Jos Butler in the last game against Rajasthan Royals. Butler was on track to a hundred and it looked like he and Rahane would take their team home with plenty of balls to spare.
But Ashwin showed a killer instinct like one never showed before in IPL. He played around the laws of the game to dismiss Butler in the most controversial manner. That made all the difference as Kings XI won that match narrowly.
However, Ashwin has lost a lot of good will. Lot of ex-players have spoken out about him, the most prominent about them being Shane Warne. Warne said on Twitter, “So disappointed in @ashwinravi99 as a Captain & as a person. All captains sign the #IPL wall & agree to play in the spirit of the game. RA had no intention of delivering the ball – so it should have been called a dead ball. Over to u BCCI – this a not a good look for the #IPL.”
“Ashwin’s actions were simply disgraceful, and I hope the BCCI doesn’t condone this sort of behaviour in the #IPL ! #spiritofthegame,” Warne said.
“As Captain of your side – you set the standard of the way the team wants to play & what the team stands for! Why do such a disgraceful & low act like that tonight? You must live with yourself & FYI – it’s too late to say sorry Mr Ashwin. You will be remembered for that low act,” Warne added.
Cricketing legend Rahul Dravid was more diplomatic than Warne. The Wall said, “It’s within the laws of the game and that’s pretty clear. So I don’t have a problem with someone deciding to do it. Ashwin was well within his rights to do what he did.”
“However, personally, I would prefer it if somebody warns someone first. That would be my personal choice, but I respect someone’s view to think differently. I might not agree with it necessarily, but I would just have to agree to disagree whether someone should run someone out without warning him,” Dravid added.
Dravid defended Ashwin saying, “I think some of the reactions were overblown. Questioning Ashwin’s character because he did that is totally wrong. He has every right to his view. You might not agree with it, but it was well within his rights to do it and that does not make him a bad person.”
The reason we have focused on this particular incident is because everyone’s eyes will be on Ashwin and what he does next. The match itself is inconsequential. It’s all about Ashwin tonight.
KKR should take advantage of this and come out with a win. For them, Sunil Narine will be back after an injury. Narine is their most important player along with Andre Russell.
The Teams
Kolkata Knight Riders: 1 Chris Lynn, 2 Sunil Narine, 3 Robin Uthappa, 4 Nitish Rana, 5 Shubman Gill, 6 Dinesh Karthik (capt & wk), 7 Andre Russell, 8 Piyush Chawla, 9 Kuldeep Yadav, 10 Lockie Ferguson, 11 Prasidh Krishna
Kings XI Punjab: 1 Chris Gayle, 2 KL Rahul (wk), 3 Mayank Agarwal, 4 Sarfaraz Khan, 5 Nicholas Pooran (wk)/David Miller, 6 Mandeep Singh, 7 Andrew Tye/Sam Curran, 8 R Ashwin (capt), 9 Mohammed Shami, 10 Mujeeb Ur Rahman, 11 Ankit Rajpoot
Prediction: An easy win for KKR.
