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'How can you say it is not LBW?': Ashwin asks for rule change, cites Root and Bairstow's example from Edgbaston Test
Ashwin, who has scalped 442 Test wickets, made references from the recently concluded rescheduled Test against England at Edgbaston, which India lost by seven wickets.
India's ace spinner R Ashwin suggested an interesting reform in the game of cricket concerning the LBW dismissals. The carrom ball specialist wants batters to be given out LBW if the ball hits their pads while attempting the switch hit despite it pitching outside the leg stump line. Ashwin made the suggestion in a video posted on his YouTube channel.
As per the standing rules, a player isn't ruled out LBW even if the ball is hitting the stumps if it pitches outside the leg-stump line, which is considered to be a 'blind spot' for the batters.
"My question is not whether he can play reverse sweep or not, whether it's negative bowling strategy or not (bowling outside leg stump), my point is about lbw. It's unfair that it's not ruled lbw," said Ashwin.
"Let batters play the switch hit, but give us LBW when they miss. How can you say it is not LBW when the batter turns? If they start giving that out in all formats of the game, some parity could be retained between bowling and batting," he added.
Ashwin, who has scalped 442 Test wickets, made references from the recently concluded rescheduled Test against England at Edgbaston, which India lost by seven wickets. England then completed a record 378-run chase comfortably with Joe Root and Jonny Bairstow slamming a century each in the fourth innings.
However, Ashwin made an interesting observation from the contest and noted: "In this game, it was about the approach that Joe Root and (Jonny) Bairstow took. Root played about 10 shots, where he turned around completely and attempted the reverse sweep.
"He played that 10 times but didn't connect on 9 of them. On the 10th time, it got the under-edge and rolled away. Bairstow, meanwhile, kept padding the balls away."
"Blind spot" is when a ball pitches outside the leg stump and is not visible to a batter while standing in his original stance. Ashwin stressed that it did not remain a "blind spot" when Root switched from his original stand and stood like a left-handed batter while playing reverse sweeps.
"This is where I have a small difference of opinion. As a bowler, I am informing you that I am bowling left-arm spin from over the stumps and I have this (leg side) field. You front up to that as a right-hander, but you play that reverse sweep and hit like a left-hander.
"But when Root does that, he won't be out lbw because of the blind spot. It's only a blind spot when you are at your normal stance. Once you play the reverse sweep and have a left-handed stance, it's no longer a blind spot. It's front on," said Ashwin.
-with PTI inputs
