Ravichandran Ashwin revisits 'Mankad' episode involving Jos Buttler with cheeky remark: 'Kamaal ka banda par...'

Ravichandran Ashwin revisits 'Mankad' episode involving Jos Buttler with cheeky remark (IPL/File Photo)

Once rivals, then teammates, now back to square one, that has been the connection between Ravichandran Ashwin and Jos Buttler in the Indian Premier League (IPL). Both players were also involved in one of the most debatable incident, which took place in the IPL. The story dates back to 2019 when Ashwin plied his trade for Kings XI Punjab (now rechristened to Punjab Kings), while Buttler was part of Rajasthan Royals.

Buttler then was batting at 69 off 43 balls and appeared settled in the 185-run chase. However, what followed next ignited a major debate on "spirit of cricket" as Ashwin chose to run-out Buttler at the non-striker's end without bowling the ball. This led to an unpleasant exchange by the England cricketer as many from the cricket fraternity weighed-in on the topic.

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Ashwin then was roped in by the Royals and was seen playing alongside Buttler but heading into the new season both players will be seen in different dugouts. Ashwin returns to the Chennai Super Kings (CSK) after being purchased for Rs 9.75 crore at the IPL mega auction held in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. Buttler, on the other hand, was not retained by the Royals and will now be seen playing for the Gujarat Titans, who roped in the English wicketkeeper-batter for Rs 15.75 crore.

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A post shared by Vimal Kumar (@vimalwa)

Ashwin revisited the 'Mankad' episode involving Buttler while discussing the IPL auction on his YouTube channel, the snippet of which was shared by independent journalist Vimal Kumar on his Instagram handle.

Responding to a question to weigh-in on the Englishman, the carrom ball specialist said: "Banda bahut acha hain, soft spoken person, par crease k bahar jata hain. 2-3 baar ho chuka hain. But Buttler kamaal ka banda hain, kitne baar bola Rajasthan Royals ko retain karne ko par kiya hi nahi (Jos Buttler is a very nice person, soft spoken, but he goes out of the crease. This has been at least 2-3 times. Otherwise he is an awesome person, Rajasthan Royals were advice to retain him but they didn't.)"