Few years back, this would have been a wild fantasy. But on Saturday, it came true. Ravichandran Ashwin and Jos Buttler wouldn’t see eye to eye at one time but the two superstars will join forces in IPL 2022 when they take the field for their franchise Rajasthan Royals.
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RR made a successful bid of Rs 5 crore to secure the services of Ashwin and will team up with Englishman Buttler who was retained by the inaugural champions last year. Apart from Buttler, RR retained Sanju Samson and Yashasvi Jaiswal.
So what’s the story behind the frostiness between Ashwin and Buttler?
Let’s jog back your memory. During IPL 2019, during a contest between RR and Kings XI Punjab (now Punjab Kings), Ashwin ran out Buttler for backing up too far at the non-striker’s end.
RR were on a solid ground at 108/2 in chase of 185 with Buttler batting on 69 when the controversial run out triggered a collapse. They eventually finished on 170/9 and KXIP won the match by 14 runs.
The dismissal drew widespread response with polarized opinions. Few were critical of Ashwin for acting against ‘spirit of the game’ while others pointed out that the dismissal was perfectly legal and instead called out Buttler for gaining advantage by leaving the crease well ahead.
But Buttler didn’t like it one bit. “At the time, I was really disappointed with it. I didn’t like the style of it,” Buttler would say later.
“What was more disappointing is that suddenly over the next two games I found myself being really conscious of it and it is quite distracting,” he added.
Ashwin said the incident was blown out of proportions. “Sometimes [I feel] what I did to him during that game is blown out of proportion in terms of character assassination,” Ashwin said a year later. “Which is quite silly if the truth has to be told. I haven’t earned a level one demerit point in my whole career. What I did is what the rules are supposed to be.”
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