"Ravichandran Ashwin kept his hand on Nitin Menon's shoulder and said, 'Let me tell you a kutti story'" - Aakash Chopra reacts to the run-up saga in 1st India vs New Zealand Test
Aakash Chopra has reacted to the run-up sag that unfurled between Ravichandran Ashwin and umpire Nitin Menon in Kanpur on Saturday. The former opener said the spinner's methods weren't against the rules. According to Chopra, he should have understood Menon's point of view and avoided hurting his association with him.
While bowling on Day 3 of the first Test Ravichandran Ashwin tried an unorthodox diagonal run-up from round the wicket for an over. This blocked both the umpire and the non-striker's vision in his follow-through.
Menon then had quite an animated chat with him and Indian skipper Ajinkya Rahane. This saw Ashwin go back to his original runup in the next over.
Aakash Chopra spoke about this in a video on his YouTube channel after stumps. He cheekily joked how Ravichandran Ashwin must have told Menon, "Let me tell you a kutti (small) story". This was a reference to a video series on Ashwin's YouTube channel with the same name.
Aakash Choprain weighed in on the incident, saying:
"There were a lot of chats. He [Ravichandran Ashwin] even kept his hand on Nitin Menon's shoulder and said, 'Let me tell you a kutti story'. Every time the umpire was saying, 'What are you doing, sir?' And are you wondering whether he was doing anything wrong? Not at all. It's within the rules - you can bowl from anywhere and end your follow-through anywhere too as long as it's away from the danger area."
He added:
"He wasn't going there but the truth is if you come completely in front of Nitin Menon then... [he] can't give out no? If [he] sees like this (by tilting his body) then the orientation will get disturbed. He has to stand in front of the three stumps only and if Ashwin blocks that then how will he know?"
Aakash Chopra added:
"My only reservation and humble submission is while you are well within your rules and you have studied all the laws in the book nicely and are following them, the umpire who won't be able to see, won't give out. And I anyway say always keep a good relationship with the umpire. Why would you want to affect that? Because if the umpire's call also starts going against you then you know how it is, right?"
Ashwin argues with umpire Nitin Menon https://t.co/R5qMxyeDi0
On-air commentators have claimed that Nitin Menon's concerns were more about Ravichandran Ashwin blocking the non-striker than his own view of the match. They also said that Indian head coach Rahul Dravid met match referee and former India pacer Javagal Srinath regarding the issue.
"Barring the runup chats, Ravichandran Ashwin also bowled well" - Aakash Chopra
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After this whole saga settled, India went on a wicket-taking spree. They bowled New Zealand out for 296, 49 short of their first innings total. Ravichandran Ashwin was the second-best bowler of the innings with three wickets (3/82). Aakash Chopra lauded him for the effort on a pitch that wasn't as suitable to him as the other spinners. He said:
"Barring the runup chats, he also bowled well. And the pitch isn't too suitable for him currently. Where the bounce is low, the quicker bowler (spinner) does well while his [Ravichandran Ashwin's] bowl goes under the bat...So he looped the ball, deceived the batters and got his three wickets."
India would have had a perfect day but they lost Shubman Gill's wicket at the stroke of stumps. They will resume proceedings at 14-1 tomorrow.