R. Ashwin applauds Alex Carey’s smarts after Jonny Bairstow’s controversial run-out.

Another controversy erupted on the “Spirit of Cricket” theme after Jonny Bairstow was run out by Alex Carey on Day 5 of the Ashes Test 2. Jonny Bairstow after ducking the bouncer delievered by Cameron Green which went to the wicketkeeper Alex Carey’s hands came out of his crease and started walking to have chat with the captain Ben Stokes and that is the time when Alex Carey threw the ball towards stumps and appealed for run out which was later approved by Third Umpire and that was when the English crowd started booing the Australian team tactics and debate on “Spirit of Cricket” caught fire, people on social media started giving their opinions on the incident and one of them was Ravichandran Ashwin who is infamous for his Mankading moment of Jos Buttler and then criticizing the logic behind Spirit of Cricket as everything he did was under ICC rules.

Going to his twitter account, Ashwin tweeted words of appreciation for Alex Carey and the Australian team’s awareness during the match, as they correctly noticed the pattern of England’s batter and did what was right according to the ICC rules, as rule 20.1.2 states: “The ball shall be considered to be dead when it is clear to the bowler’s end umpire that the fielding side and both batsmen at the wicket have ceased to regard it as in play”. His tweet reads:

“We must get one fact loud and clear. The keeper would never have a dip at the stumps from that far out in a test match unless he or his team have noticed a pattern of the batter leaving his crease after leaving a ball like Bairstow did. We must applaud the game smarts of the individual rather than skewing it towards unfair play or spirit of the game”.

Ashwin on his twitter account

Cricket fans were divided on this matter, and England lost the match despite Ben Stokes heroics of 155 runs as Australia took a 2-0 lead in the Ashes series in 2023.