The third Test between India and England has turned in favor of the host nation as the visitors were dismissed for 319 runs. India is ahead by 126 runs on the basis of the first innings, having scored 445. Ravichandran Ashwin, who left the Test mid-way due to his ailing mother, was penalized for running onto the protected areas of the pitch.
Ashwin played a delivery by Rehan Ahmed and ran to take a single, but he was told to return by Dhruv Jurel. The all-rounder was penalized five runs by umpire Joel Wilson. England started their innings with 5/0.
Speaking about the incident, former England cricketer Sir Alastair Cook accused Ravichandran Ashwin of intentionally damaging the pitch to take wickets in England’s innings.
“He was intentionally damaging the pitch to take wickets. He ran on the protected area to disturb it as he has to bowl in the second innings. This generally happens in the third innings if you are 120-130 runs ahead. You think of taking advantage of the situation,” Cook told TNT Sports.
However, Ashwin hit back at the former captain, saying that his poor motor skills did not allow him to stay away from the dangerous area. He also said that he doesn’t care what the former England players and media think.
“Umpires warned some of our batters for running on the pitch and I was aware of it. Howeve, I couldn’t get off the pitch on time due to poor motor skills. If the England players and media think that it was intentional, it wasn’t. If this is how they want to blame me, so be it. I told the on-field umpires Joel (Wilson) and Kumar (Dharmasena) that the incident happened due to poor motor skills and if I was any better, I would have competed in Olympics and not cricket,” Ashwin said.
For India, Mohammed Siraj took four wickets, while Kuldeep Yadav and Ravindra dismissed two batters each.