The internet has been burning since Deepti Sharma ran out of England’s Charlotte Dean in the final ODI between the two teams that helped India whitewash England 3-0. Social media platforms are flooded with reactions. While the English cricket fraternity is slamming the Indian women's cricket team, claiming the dismissal to be against the spirit of the game, some (everyone other than England cricket fans) seem to stand firmly behind Women in Blue citing the new rules introduced by the International Cricket Council (ICC).
India’s cricketer R Ashwin who was the first of many to use ‘Mankad’ dismissal to send back a batter, came in support of Sharma saying she did nothing wrong there. Other than defending Deepti Sharma, Ashwin is also shutting down people who are taking a dig at the Indian women’s cricket team and Deepti. In the same process, Ashwin shared a savage reply to Sam Billings’ tweet, which the English cricketer shared on a thread involving James Anderson.
The discussion started with Anderson saying, “There’s surely not a person who has played the game that thinks this is acceptable? Just not cricket…”. Billings agreed to it by replying, “Well within the laws but not in the spirit. Just my opinion… the law should be changed back to a warning system or penalty runs for excessive backing up for eg”. The discussion ended with Billings tweeting, “Imagine how many more wickets you could get James”.
At this moment, R Ashwin stepped in and surely clean bowled the two English cricketers by posting a savage reply. The India off-spinner said that the bowlers should be awarded the wicket for their presence of mind. He then took a dig by asking ICC to introduce a bravery award for the bowlers who affect such dismissals.
“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 @ICC?” tweeted Ashwin.