Ravichandran Ashwin wants the batters to be given out leg before when the ball pitches outside the leg stump if they are attempting to play the reverse sweep or a switch hit.
According to the laws, a player can’t be ruled leg before even if it goes on to hit the stumps in case it is pitched outside leg-stump, which is considered to be a ‘blind spot’ for the batters.
The off-spinner now wants the authorities to take a relook at the concept to even up the contest.
“Please play your reverse sweeps, but give us (bowlers) lbw!” Ashwin said on his YouTube channel.
“How can you say it’s not lbw when you turn (your body and it’s no longer a blind spot). It’s only a blind spot when you are at your normal stance. Once you play the reverse sweep or switch hit, it’s no longer a blind spot. It’s extremely unfair that it’s not ruled lbw.”
Ashwin even took to indoor nets to demonstrate what he meant.
He discussed the approach by Ravindra Jadeja who bowled from over the wickets, outside leg stump to Joe Root and Jonny Bairstow during the fifth Test at Edgbaston.
“Root tried the reverse sweep for 10 times initially and for the first nine times, he couldn’t connect. The 10th time the ball rolled off the under edge. Bairstow just padded those balls away,” Ashwin said.
“As a bowler I tell the batsman my line of attack (over or around the stumps), and I am giving a clear glimpse of my field too. You front up as a right-handed batsman but switch to a left-hander.
“Try telling Joe Root that if the ball comes from outside leg stump and hits your pad, it’s not blind spot. If I play it from my original stance, it’s blind spot. But if I turn around, then it’s not a blind spot — it’s fronton.”
“The moment you turn around you are front-on. My question is not whether he can play reverse sweep or not, whether it’s negative bowling strategy or not, my point is about lbw. It’s extremely unfair that it’s not ruled lbw.”
Ashwin also showed how Australian opener Usman Khawaja plays the reverse sweep without changing his stance, but by changing the grip on the bat.
He thinks that is fine but not the way his teammate Alex Carey plays. “Carey turns his body around... Then it’s no longer a blind spot when the ball lands outside leg stump. That’s my point of view.
“When the batsman plays that kind of shot even once, I think the lbw rule should be applicable. The umpire should tell them,” Ashwin said.
Ashwin also spoke about the relevance of the 50-over format as is turning out to be an extended form of T20 cricket without “ebbs and flows”.
“It’s a question of relevance and I think ODI cricket needs to find its relevance. It needs to find its spot,” Ashwin, who has 151 wickets in 113 ODIs, said on the upcoming show of the ‘Vaughany and Tuffers Cricket club podcast’.
The podcast is hosted by former England captain Michael Vaughan and left-arm spinner Phil Tuffnell. “The greatest beauty of one day cricket is – sorry was – the ebbs and flows of the game.
People used to bide their time and take the game deep.
The one-day format used to be a format where bowlers had a say,” added the 35-year-old. “Even me as a cricket badger and a cricket nut, I switch off the TV after a point and that’s frankly very scary for the format of the game.
When those ebbs and flows go missing, it’s not cricket anymore. It is just an extended form of T20,” he maintained. Currently, two new balls are used in an ODI innings but Ashwin pushed for returning to the old format where one was ball used.
“I think one ball is something that would work and spinners would come into the game to bowl more at the back end. Reverse swing might come back in, which is crucial for the game,” he said.