Ravichandran Ashwin’s mankading of Jos Buttler during Punjab’s victory over Rajasthan dragged the former into a massive backlash. A lot was said about the controversy, and finally the victim – Buttler – has expressed his opinions, saying that it was "probably the wrong decision" by the officials.
Although Buttler, who lost his wicket during the crucial moment of the game, admits that there should be a place for such incidents in the game, he believes that the rule needs better clarification.
"Of course a Mankading has to be in the Laws of the game because a batsman can't just run halfway down the pitch trying to get a headstart," Buttler told ESPNcricinfo. "But I do think, the way the law is written, there is a bit of a grey area in that saying 'when a bowler is expected to release the ball'. That is a bit of a wishy-washy statement."
As per the law 41.16, "If the non-striker is out of his/her ground at any time from the moment the ball comes into play until the instant when the bowler would normally have been expected to release the ball, the non-striker is liable to be run out."
The thin-line, however, in this case was the 'expected release of the ball’. Many opines that Ashwin, whose run-up seemed smooth, took a long pause before mankad-ing the England batsman. Buttler, who was left livid by the official’s decision, though, says, "it's different for everyone, isn't it?"
"If you look at the footage, probably the wrong decision was made because at the time he was expected to release the ball I was in my crease," Buttler said.
"At the time I was really disappointed with it. I didn't like the style of it. I just thought it was a bad precedent at the start of the tournament. For the tournament itself. It was a really disappointing way to start the tournament.
"So, I didn't like what happened and I didn't agree with it, but what can you do? After a day or so I was pretty relaxed about it and I'll make sure it never happens again. It won't happen again."
Buttler had scored six half-centuries in seven IPL innings prior to the incident. Post that, he suffered two back-to-back single-digit dismissals. Talking about it, he added the incident was quite distracting for him.
"What was more disappointing is that suddenly, over the next two games, I found myself being really conscious of it and it is quite distracting," he said. "It is so rare that you're not normally thinking about it. I must be the only person to get out twice in that way.
"It distracted me for the next couple of games which is why it was nice to get some runs in the win and get back to thinking about batting and not worrying about how I back up at the non-striker's end."
