R Ashwin and Jos Buttler (Image credit: BCCI/IPL) NEW DELHI: Seven years have passed since the controversial ‘Mankading’ incident involving Ravichandran Ashwin and Jos Buttler during the IPL 2019 match between Punjab Kings and Rajasthan Royals. Ashwin, then playing for Punjab, dismissed Buttler at the non-striker’s end, sparking heated exchanges between the players and reigniting the debate about the spirit of cricket.Buttler was given out and left the field visibly upset.Seven years later, the incident has again come into the limelight, with Ashwin maintaining that he did nothing wrong.
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Vikram Solanki on GT strategy, pitch and team decisions“If the ICC felt it was a fairness issue, they wouldn’t have kept it in the rules. If you need two runs from one ball and you start running early, whose fault is that?” said Ashwin at JioStar’s The Ravichandran Ashwin Experience.“People say I did it to win. Of course I did it to win. What should I be ashamed of?”“After I wore him out, I said to the team… ‘don’t worry about the reaction, I’ll take care of the media, we just have to win.’ And we won. So there is no problem of character,” he said.THE ONLY REGRET OF ASHWINWith 187 wickets from 221 matches in an IPL career from 2009 to 2025 across five franchises, Ashwin admitted that he could not quite make it to the Punjab Kings despite leading them in 2018–19, but described his tenure with Rajasthan Royals as the most fulfilling.“When Punjab picked me in 2018, I knew I was moving on… I spent two years there and honestly gave it my all.“But I have a slight feeling that I couldn’t have made the team by myself. In the auction you get a chance to build your team … the team couldn’t be built around me. I may not have achieved much as a captain, but the learning was huge.”On his stint with Rajasthan Royals, he added, “I spent three years there and this internship helped me come back to the Indian team. The way RR used me was first class and I enjoyed cricket there like nowhere else.”“My only small regret is that I couldn’t win the title with RR… That was one small regret,” he said.
