How about awarding wicket to bowler for presence of mind: Ashwin

Premier off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin on Sunday said wickets ought to be credited to bowlers’ accounts when they run out batters at the non-striker’s end for backing up too far, as it requires “presence of mind”.

Going by the ICC manual, India all-rounder Deepti Sharma’s run out of Charlie Dean in the third ODI was perfectly legal, but it still divided opinion with many backing it while Englishmen, such as Stuart Broad, James Anderson and Sam Billings, expressing their annoyance.

Joining in the debate Ashwin, who has often objected to these kind of run outs being termed ‘Mankading’ (named after former India player Vinoo Mankad), recommended a bravery award for the bowler.

Responding to a tweet by English cricketer Billings who asked Adnderson, “Imagine how many more wickets you could get James,” Ashwin wrote on his Twitter handle, “In fact that’s a great idea.”

“How about awarding that wicket to the bowler for “presence of mind” under immense pressure and of course knowing the social stigma that he/she would have to deal with post doing it. How about a bravery award to go with it too.” The Indian women’s team beat England at Lord’s to sweep the three-match series and give a fitting farewell to the legendary Jhulan Goswami on Saturday.

However, bowler Deepti running out Dean to claim England’s last wicket, after the batter had backed up, led to a controversy.

Dean was backing up when Sharma stopped in the middle of her bowling action to run out the batter for 47 runs with the target just 17 runs away. The dismissal is perfectly legal according to laws of the game.

Earlier, Ashwin tweeted, “Why the hell are you trending Ashwin? Tonight is about another bowling hero @Deepti_Sharma06.”