Politics makes strange bedfellows, they say. The Indian Premier League, too, is no different.
With franchise-based cricket, there are never no friends or foes forever. Ravichandran Ashwin and Jos Buttler found that out earlier in the day when the former was picked by Rajasthan Royals in today's IPL auction, for Rs 5 crore. English wicketkeeper-batter Buttler is one of the three players retained by the franchise.
For the uninitiated, in 2019, during RR's home match against Kings XI Punjab (now Punjab Kings) in Jaipur on March 25, Ashwin ran out Buttler at the non-strikers end after the batter had backed up too far. Chasing 185, RR were going great guns at 108/2 with Buttler batting on 69 when the controversial run out triggered a collapse. They finished on 170/9 to concede a 14-run defeat. Later, Buttler admitted that the incident had proved "distracting" and played on his mind in his two next innings.
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Rajasthan Royals CEO Jake Lush McCrum said they spoke to Buttler about their preferences. "We spoke to Jos prior to the auction and just talked through all of our prioritisation of players. Honestly, he didn't even think about it (his 'Mankading' by Ashwin). I had to sort of bring it up to just check it was okay. And he said 'it's absolutely fine'," Jake said at a media interaction. "Maybe he will have to practise in the nets with him. But otherwise on the field, they're looking forward to playing together," he said.
The situation will be more awkward for Krunal Pandya (Rs 8.25 crore) and Deepak Hooda (Rs 5.75 crore), both of who were picked by new entrants Lucknow Super Giants. In January last year, the Baroda Cricket Association had suspended Hooda, who had stormed out of the state team's camp before the start of Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy, during last domestic season on charges of "indiscipline" and "bringing disrespect to the game". Hooda had claimed that Krunal had misbehaved with him.
While Pandya has been out of the Indian team, Hooda, who has upped his game since Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy, is now a capped India player, with a decent outing in the first two ODI games against the West Indies in the recently concluded series.