In the first ODI against India, Sri Lankan captain Dasun Shanaka was lucky to raise his bat as Indian captain Rohit Sharma had a chance to send Shanaka back to the pavilion but opted against it. Shanaka scored an unbeaten 108 but when he was batting on 98, he got extremely lucky. The incident occurred when Mohammed Shami ran in to deliver the fourth ball of the final over of the match. Shanaka, who was stranded at 98 on the non-striker's end, left the crease before Shami delivered the ball. The Indian pacer stopped and mankaded the Sri Lankan captain by dislodging the bail. Shami appealed and the on-field umpire went upstairs. Rohit Sharma then intervened and had a brief chat with Shami before both decided to withdraw the appeal.
Ravichandran Ashwin, who has constantly backed mankading, voiced his support for Shami and switched focus on umpires to declare the batter out.
"Of course, Shami’s run out... When Shanaka was on 98, Shami ran him out in the non-striker’s end, and he appealed too. Rohit withdrew that appeal. So many people tweeted about that immediately," Ashwin said on his YouTube channel.
"I am going to keep repeating only one thing, guys. The game situation is immaterial. That is a legitimate form of dismissal.
If you ask for an LBW appeal or a caught-behind appeal, nobody will check with the captain on whether they are sure about the appeal.
"They will give him out if the bowler appeals, and that is the end of it. See, even if one fielder appeals, it is the duty of the umpire to declare a player out if he is out.
"So, I find it very surprising to have so many taboos surrounding this mode of dismissal. But the entire dismissal is regarding what the bowler does, right? "The right of making that dismissal or making that appeal or making that decision lies with the bowler, right," he said.
After the game, the Indian skipper explained the reason behind withdrawing the appeal and said, "I had no idea Shami did that (run-out), he was batting on 98. The way he batted was brilliant, we cannot get him out like that. Not something that we thought of, hats off to him, he played really well."