The English skipper Jos Buttler is in news once again because of mankading and this time he hasn’t been dismissed but he got a warning from an Australian pacer.
England and Australia played a 3-match T20I series which England won by 2-0, the third T20I which was played yesterday at Manuka Oval ended without any result as rain spoiled the match. During the match, the English skipper was given a warning by the Australian bowler Mitchell Starc as the former was trying to take undue advantage by backing out of the crease even before the ball was thrown by the bowler.
Mitchell Starc made it clear to Jos Buttler that he shouldn’t leave the crease early. It happened in the fifth over of the England innings when Mitchell Starc bowled to striker Dawid Malan and he played the ball back to the bowler. It was then Mitchell Starc warned Jos Buttler and this is what stump mic caught Starc saying, “I’m not Deepti, but I won’t do it. That doesn’t mean you can leave early.”
In response, Jos Buttler was heard saying, “I don’t think I did”.
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The Australian pacer was referring to the Indian woman cricketer Deepti Sharma who dismissed the English woman cricketer Charlie Dean in the 3rd ODI of the 3-match series which was played at Lord’s. Though Mankad has always been within the laws of the game and now it is even recognized as run-out, there are many who feel that it is against the spirit of the game.
When Deepti Sharma dismissed Charlie Dean, numerous former English cricketers and mediapersons criticized the Indian woman cricketer for going against the spirit of the game but Deepti Sharma had complete support of her skipper and the team management and a number of former Indian cricketers also came out in her support on social media.
As far as Jos Buttler is concerned, he has already experienced mankading in the IPL 2019 as in one of the matches, the English cricketer who plays for Rajasthan Royals was mankaded by R Ashwin (Punjab Kings player). Many people from cricket fraternity slammed R Ashwin but the Indian spinner was firm on his stand and he made it clear to everyone that he would do it again on getting a chance as what he did was completely within the laws of the game.
It seems that Jos Buttler needs to be more careful now. What do you say?