Watch: Ashwin sends Steve Smith into panic after stopping right before bowling the delivery; Kohli's reaction is epic

Ravichandran Ashwin stopped right before bowling the delivery, forcing Steve Smith to make a quick return inside the crease.

India's star spinner Ravichandran Ashwin gave Steve Smith a scare during the opening hour of Day 3 of the Test in Delhi, as he stopped in his delivery stride, seemingly to remind the Australian batter to stay inside his crease. During the 15th over of the innings, Ashwin began his run-up to bowl to Marnus Labuschagne, but stops exactly at the moment he was about to release the delivery.

Ravichandran Ashwin and Steve Smith (Hotstar)

Smith ran back inside his crease almost immediately, and proceeded to gesture a thumbs-up towards Ashwin as the bowler passed a wide grin. Both, Smith and Labuschagne, couldn't suppress a smile as well. India's Virat Kohli, who was standing at first slip at the time, also passed a sheepish smile as he watched on the proceedings.

Watch:

Ashwin has remained quite vocal about the dismissal, informally called the ‘Mankad’, which was included in the ‘Run out’ section by the Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) last year. While the use of the dismissal remains debatable in many countries, the Indian women's team ran non-striker Charlie Dean to much furore during an ODI at Lord's.

The India spinner has also used the dismissal in the Indian Premier League, running out England's Jos Buttler in the 2019 edition of the tournament. Interestingly, even as Buttler remained a staunch critic of the dismissal, both now share the dressing room in the IPL at Rajasthan Royals.

In the ongoing second Test against Australia, Ashwin had also made an important contribution with the bat as he scored 32, stitching a key 114-run stand alongside Axar Patel (74).

"They are not lower-order (batters). Let's get that clear. Axar and Ash could easily bat in the top-six in a few teams in Test cricket around the world in my eyes. They (India) have a very long top order, let's just say that," Australia spinner Lyon had said in the press conference about the duo following the end of day's play.

Thanks to the efforts of Axar and Ashwin, India kept Australia's first-innings lead down to just one run.