Running out batters at non-striker's end by bowlers in their delivery stride if a batter is backing up, has been long part of MCC laws and the dismissal no longer be considered unfair play under a new set of laws announced by them. Yet most bowlers have refrained from using it and rather let go batters with just a mere warning. Australia bowler Mitchell Starc on Friday threatened England captain Jos Buttler for the same during the third T20I match between England and Australia, but decided against it in the last moment and left the batter with a warning.
The incident happened in the fifth over of the match where Starc suddenly stopped during his delivery stride, turned back and warned Buttler for leaving the crease early. Buttler seemed to have denied that he left the crease early, but footage clearly showed that the England skipper was out of his ground when Starc bowled the ball. Footage also showed that Buttler followed the rules in the next three balls of that over.
Buttler has twice been dismissed in this fashion in his career - once in 2014 in an ODI match by Sri Lanka’s Sachithra Senanayake and the other by India's Ravichandran Ashwin during an Indian Premier League game in 2019.
{{/usCountry}}Buttler has twice been dismissed in this fashion in his career - once in 2014 in an ODI match by Sri Lanka’s Sachithra Senanayake and the other by India's Ravichandran Ashwin during an Indian Premier League game in 2019.
{{/usCountry}}“No, I am calling the batsman back,” Buttler had said last month. “No one wants to see [mankads] in the game because they always create such a talking point when it should be about the battle between bat and ball and watching great games of cricket. They always seem to happen at unsavoury times.”