IPL 2019 | Would it be okay if Ben Stokes did that to Virat Kohli, asks infuriated Shane Warne

The Royals had to leave the ground infuriated on Monday after a narrow 14-run loss to Kings XI Punjab especially from a situation where the hosts looked to easily win the game. A well-settled Jos Buttler’s dismissal was pivotal to the outcome and the manner in which he got out has raised a huge cry. The English hard-hitter had left the crease even before Ashwin bowled and the Kings XI Punjab skipper decided to clip the bails.

After Buttler had an animated conversation with Ashwin before returning to the pavilion, coach Paddy Upton had criticized Ashwin stating that his action didn’t make his teammates proud. However, the most infuriated of the lot was visibly RR mentor Shane Warne, who released a series of tweets slamming the Indian off-spinner for his lack of sportsman spirit.

The KXIP team had a positive start to their IPL campaign after Chris Gayle started proceeding in a familiar fashion scoring 79 runs off 47 balls. While it helped Punjab post a target of 185, their bowlers started in the mist underwhelming manner possible with openers Ajinkya Rahane and Jos Buttler building a solid 78-run partnership. 

Buttler had brought his half-century from 29 balls and was sitting comfortably on 69 runs off 43 balls, when the incident happened. And his dismissal pretty much threw the hosts off gear, which eventually saw them ending the chase with just 170 runs for the loss of nine. 

Ashwin has come under huge criticism from many former Indian players as well, who were all of the opinion that the bowler should have firstwarne the batsman before going for the mankad. With the cricket rule book keeping it legal, a lot has been entrusted on an individual's sportsman spirit when it has come to "Mankad-ing".