South African left-arm wrist spinner Tabraiz Shamsi has come in support of ‘Mankading’ and has stated that it is well within the rules of cricket and the bowler shouldn’t be held responsible for running out a batsman in that manner. Shamsi, who has been in good form in the T20 circuit over the last season and a half has argued that a batsman should rather be held responsible for not upholding the spirit of the game.
Indian off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin who has always been vocal about this particular form of dismissal had demanded free balls whenever the non-striker tries to steal an extra yard. Like when a bowler is penalised for bowling a no-ball, Ashwin feels that a free ball would ensure that the non-striker remains at the crease until the bowler completes his action.
Former Indian cricketer and currently one of the leading commentators, Sanjay Manjrekar had earlier written a column in an Indian publication and had asked fans and cricket followers to come up with more suggestions regarding the potential change of rules in the game which they look forward to. In response, Ashwin had recommended a free ball to a bowler.
In the particular Twitter thread shared by Manjrekar, Ashwin indulged in a conversation with a Twitter user where he mentioned why bowlers tend to refrain from running out a batsman in that manner. “The mental trauma that the bowlers may go through stops them from doing it,” Ashwin had tweeted.
Replying to that particular response, Tabraiz Shamsi said that he fails to understand the reason why bowlers are held accountable for running out a batsman when actually the batsman is at fault. Quite often we have seen the non-striker batsman strolling out of his crease. Until recent times, most of the bowlers have refrained from Mankading the batsman as it is considered against the spirit of the game.
"@ashwinravi99 I think all the bowlers should do it without any fear… it’s within the rules of the game. Why must the bowlers get abused about the “spirit of cricket” when it’s actually the batsmen that are stealing yards and THAT is against the spirit of cricket. That’s the real truth,” Shami tweeted.
Ashwin received criticism from all quarters when he ran out Jos Buttler in a group game during the 2019 edition of the Indian Premier League. The off-spinner recently mentioned an incident when his Punjab Kings (then Kings XI Punjab) teammate Ankit Rajpoot had refused to Mankad a batsman when the match was firmly on the line and could have resulted in a win for his team. Rajpoot told his skipper Ashwin that he will be made the villain if he runs out the batsmen in that manner.