Delhi Capitals off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin once again opened up on the on-field spat with Kolkata Knight Riders captain Eoin Morgan and fast bowler Tim Southee, and said that the reason he was charged up was because he felt the KKR players had already decided before hand to have a go at him.
The debate over 'spirit of cricket' had reignited once again after Morgan & co. complained that Ashwin tried to steal a single after the ball was deflected by Rishabh Pant's body from a throw.
But Ashwin said that he had not even seen the ball hitting Pant, and said that it was wrong of KKR players to "give a sendoff" to a batter who has just been dismissed.
"Look, I think it is definitely not a personal battle or one-on-one battle. Personally, I would not deem it like that. People who want attention may be taking it that way, but I am not looking it that way at all. The incident that happened the other day was, I got really charged up because that was entirely untoward by both Tim Southee and Eoin Morgan to give the batter a sendoff who just got out," said Ashwin while replying to an ANI query during a virtual press conference after DC beat Chennai Super Kings by 3 wickets to claim top spot in the IPL 2021 table.
"The worst situation was that I was not aware that the ball had hit Rishabh so I just felt like that they already decided to have a go at me. That is one of the reasons I said that the words which were used were not in the right direction and not in the right space. Beyond that, we need to understand that culturally people are different, the way people are brought up to play cricket in England and India, the way one thinks is completely different," he added.
{{/usCountry}}"The worst situation was that I was not aware that the ball had hit Rishabh so I just felt like that they already decided to have a go at me. That is one of the reasons I said that the words which were used were not in the right direction and not in the right space. Beyond that, we need to understand that culturally people are different, the way people are brought up to play cricket in England and India, the way one thinks is completely different," he added.
{{/usCountry}}"I would not say anyone is wrong here, it is just that the sort of way the game was played in the 1940s cannot be the way that you want somebody else to apply it. My two cents to this are that you want to play the game in the way you want to, but do not expect that if it is not within the laws of the game and have a go at them for unnecessary reasons," he signed off.