Ravi Ashwin uses Jos Buttler IPL ‘mankad’ to warn Indians to obey COVID isolation rules

Ravichandran Ashwin pokes fun at English ‘mankad’ victim Jos Butler to remind 1.3bn Indians to obey country’s strict lockdown laws, as the prospects of an IPL season this year fade still further.

Ravi Ashwin gives Jos Buttler an extreme lesson in social distancing in last year’s IPL.

• Green shots in to Aussie Test frame (when play resumes)
• Take a look inside Warnie’s insane isolation bunker

With the prospect of this year’s IPL season taking place fast receding, after India’s 1.3 billion citizens were placed in a strict 21 day lockdown, Ravichandran Ashwin found a lighthearted way to encourage his fellow Indian’s to follow the rules.

Ashwin invoked his ‘mankad’ dismissal of England’s Jos Buttler a year on from the controversy, when he spotted the batsman out of his crease at the non-striker’s end and ran him out, as a reminder for people to be aware of the need to stay home’ for an entirely different reason.

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“Hahaha, somebody sent me this and told me it’s exactly been 1 year since this run out happened,” wrote Ashwin, who has changed his Twitter display name to “lets stay indoors India”.

Hahaha, somebody sent me this and told me it's exactly been 1 year since this run out happened.

As the nation goes into a lockdown, this is a good reminder to my citizens.

Don't wander out. Stay inside, stay safe! #21DayLockdown pic.twitter.com/bSN1454kFt

— lets stay indoors India 🇮🇳 (@ashwinravi99) March 25, 2020

“As the nation goes into a lockdown, this is a good reminder to my citizens. Don’t wander out. Stay inside, stay safe! #21DayLockdown.”

India, which has seen a sharp rise in COVID-19 cases, went into a three week “total lockdown” at midnight on Tuesday, with anyone ignoring the order facing up to two years in jail and a fine.

This year’s IPL, the world’s richest cricket league, is one of the many sports events worldwide to be postponed including the Tokyo Olympics, which has been delayed until next year.

Ashwin wasn’t the only cricketer to urge people to stay at home, with India skipper Virat Kohli and his Bollywood actor wife Anushka Sharma also appealing to the public to observe the lockdown.

These are testing times and we need to wake up to the seriousness of this situation. Please let us all follow what's been told to us and stand united please. It's a plea to everyone 🙏🙏🙏 pic.twitter.com/75dDlzT6tX

— Virat Kohli (@imVkohli) March 25, 2020

“These are testing times and we need to wake up to the seriousness of this situation,” Kohli wrote on Twitter, along with a video message.

“Please let us all follow what’s been told to us and stand united please. It’s a plea to everyone.” Batting icon Sachin Tendulkar posted: “This simple task (staying indoors) can save millions of lives”.

India opener Shikhar Dhawan posted a skit of him doing household chores, such as washing his clothes and cleaning the toilet seat, while getting orders from his wife.

“Life after one week at home. Reality hits hard,” he wrote.

Meanwhile England all-rounder Ben Stokes has detailed how he is continuing to prepare for an IPL season he knows is unlikely take place.

Ben Stokes is busy preparing for an IPL season he knows is not going to happen.

Stokes has signed to play for Rajasthan Royals in a competition still nominally set for an April 15 start date.

“At the moment my next competitive cricket is going to be in the IPL,” Stokes told the BBC on Wednesday.

“That hasn’t changed yet so I have to think I will be playing on April 20.”

Last week, the England and Wales Cricket Board announced that the English county season would not start until at least the end of May, while England’s tour of Sri Lanka was also postponed due to the virus.

With IPL chiefs yet to officially call off their event, Stokes has to continue to keep himself in shape to play in the unlikely event he is asked to travel to India.

“I have to get my head round that I am playing even though in the back of my mind I know I am probably not,” he added.

“I have to build up and get myself physically in a position that if it does happen I am good to go.

“I cannot take three weeks off and expect the body to be ready for April 20 because it doesn’t work like that. It might happen and if it does I don’t want to be behind.

“There will be a lot of advice given to us and if it was an option to go we will have to take the sensible one.” Stokes said England’s players were initially shocked when the two-Test Sri Lanka tour was cancelled.

But the 28-year-old is well aware it was the right thing to do in the circumstances.

“Everyone was shell-shocked for half an hour in the changing room. It was such a weird feeling because we had been there for 10-12 days. We were building up to the first Test and then we were going home,” Stokes said.

“But when you put everything together in terms of where the world was with the coronavirus, and what was being said on tour, it was the wrong place to be at that time and everyone’s health is more important than anything else in the world.”

Originally published as Ravi Ashwin uses Jos Buttler IPL ‘mankad’ to warn Indians to obey COVID isolation rules