County Championship warns the non-strikers as Ravi Ashwin inks deal with Nottinghamshire

Ashwin joined Nottinghamshire for the English county season.

Published - 24 May 2019, 14:12 IST | Updated - 24 May 2019, 14:12 IST

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It has been a while since Ravi Ashwin ‘Mankaded’ Jos Buttler during Kings XI Punjab’s (KXIP) away match against the Rajasthan Royals (RR) at the Sawai Mansingh Stadium in Jaipur. The incident created quite a bit of controversy and Ashwin, the KXIP skipper, was a recipient of severe backlash from every nook and corner of the cricketing fraternity, albeit a few of them came out in his favour.

Kings XI couldn’t make the playoffs and Ashwin doesn’t have any cricketing assignment as of now. He isn’t a part of the Indian World Cup squad that would be starting their campaign against South Africa after a few days. Thus, the Tamil Nadu-born off-spinner has signed a deal with Nottinghamshire for the English county season.

He is expected to be a part of six County Championship matches and will replace James Pattinson, who is likely to be in Australia’s Ashes campaign from July. The 32-year-old previously plied his trade for Worcestershire in 2017. In that tour, he played four matches where he picked up 20 wickets with a couple of five-wicket hauls. Worcestershire had also managed to top the points table.

Ravi Ashwin joins Nottinghamshire

After the signing, Ashwin expressed his delight and is looking forward to playing at the Trent Bridge, Nottinghamshire’s home venue. He also appreciated the standard of cricket in England while saying that he enjoyed his erstwhile stint with Worcestershire. “It’s a good, competitive standard of cricket over there and I can’t wait to get started,” Ashwin was quoted as saying after signing the deal.

“I’m really looking forward to joining up with Nottinghamshire, to playing cricket at an iconic venue like Trent Bridge and hopefully contributing to some County Championship victories. I enjoyed my previous stint in England with Worcestershire. It’s a good, competitive standard of cricket over there and I can’t wait to get started,” he added.

Meanwhile, County Championship trolled the Indian cricketer, surrounding his Mankading act. Their official Twitter handle welcomed Ashwin, warining the non-strikers with a ‘For Your Information’ message. “FYI non-strikers. Notts have a new signing!,”