Ricky Ponting issues stern warning to R Ashwin against 'mankading' repeat in IPL 2020

Former Australian captain Ricky Ponting is set to reprise his coaching role for Delhi Capitals in the upcoming Indian Premier League 2020 (IPL 2020) season. The tournament is scheduled to launch on September 19 in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). In IPL 2020, Ricky Ponting will be joined by several newcomers into the Delhi Capitals fold like Ravichandran Ashwin (R Ashwin), Ajinkya Rahane and Marcus Stoinis, among others, who represented different franchises in the earlier editions of the T20 event.

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Ricky Ponting ready for a “hard conversation” with R Ashwin before IPL 2020

R Ashwin was the captain of the Kings XI Punjab unit in IPL 2019. In one of their matches against the Rajasthan Royals, the veteran off-spinner sent England’s Jos Buttler back to the pavilion through a controversial ‘mankading’ mode of dismissal. The incident divided the cricketing fraternity and quickly became one of the highly-discussed points of the season.

During a recent interaction on The Grade Cricketer Podcast, Ricky Ponting said that he will be “having a chat” and a “hard conversation” with R Ashwin when the latter joins the Delhi Capitals camp this season. The two-time World Cup-winning captain revealed that while R Ashwin was not a Delhi Capitals member last year, his impending conversation regarding the Jos Buttler incident will be the “first thing” he will do. Ricky Ponting revealed that upon witnessing Ashwin's mankading mode of dismissal, he sat down with his Delhi Capitals players at the time to tell them “we won’t be doing that”.

Ricky Ponting stated that while the mankading dismissal is within the rules of the game, R Ashwin has the right to justify the same. However, he described the mode as against the spirit of the game and made it very clear that it will not be the way he wants his Delhi Capitals to perform.

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R Ashwin mankading Jos Buttler in IPL 2019

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Apart from issuing a stern warning for R Ashwin, Ricky Ponting also had some words of admiration for the 33-year-old. He said that R Ashwin is a terrific bowler who has done a great job in IPL so far.

IPL 2020 dates and venue updates

With a launch scheduled for September 19, IPL 2020 will run till November 10 across three UAE venues. Earlier, the tournament was scheduled to commence on March 29 in India. However, the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) decided to delay and subsequently shift the event out of the country due to the spike in coronavirus cases in India.

IPL dates announced by BCCI

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Image credits: IPLT20.com