The Charlie Dean‘s run-out by Deepti Sharma during the third and final Women’s ODI between India and England has triggered a lot of buzz in the cricket fraternity. Recently, veteran Indian commentator Harsha Bhogle had slammed the English media for their response over the whole episode, blaming their culture for forcing their opinions on others.
Now, Indian off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin has also joined the bandwagon, stating that certain people who have problems with the non-striker’s run-out tend to play the victim card. Notably, Ashwin had also done the same during the 2019 Indian Premier League (IPL) when he had run-out Jos Buttler.
Ashwin said it was a bit awkward for the world in the initial phase, but most of them have now started realizing that bowlers don’t commit any crime whenever they affect the non-strikers’ run-out.
“In the beginning, the whole world saw it that way. But now, most of them have started realizing that the bowlers didn’t commit any crime there. Many of them have started asking why you are asking questions to the innocent instead of asking the person who should be guilty. Only a certain section of the people seems to have a problem with this. In my opinion, they always play the victim card. But whenever there is something new happening, there will be some resistance to change by a few people, and that is understandable,” said Ashwin on his YouTube channel.
Ashwin observed that when strikers step out of the crease, they can be dismissed by wicketkeepers, and this should be the case for non-strikers, too, as they can also get run-out from the bowler legitimately.
“Yes, I am talking about the run-out at the non-striker’s end done by Deepti Sharma dismissing Charlie Dean. I have already spoken enough on this subject already. So let me be short and sweet today. Risk vs Reward. Just like how a batter knows when he steps out of the crease against a spinner or a pacer that a wicketkeeper can dismiss them by stumping. Likewise, a non-striker should also know that he can be dismissed run-out legitimately if they keep stepping out of the crease and taking that extra yard,” explained Ashwin.
“We should teach the kids right from when they are young on this. Because in today’s world of competitive cricket, I spoke about this during the Ahmedabad Test match when the pitch issue’ was brought up on what was a good pitch. I told ‘do not control the narratives’. Because a certain section of people consciously chooses to instil in others how they should think about a certain thing. They control their narratives. There are many articles on this exact subject. In fact, I see this as a bowler’s revolution,” he added.
