Jos Buttler jokes he wants to quarantine with Ravichandran Ashwin

With all sporting action suspended for an indefinite time period, cricketers across the globe-with more time at their hands than ever-are spending it interacting with their fans. It was Indian middle-order batsman Shreyas Iyer on Wednesday, who took to Twitter to reveal little known aspects of his life through #AskShreyas, and now it is England’s Jos Buttler’s turn. Butler spoke candidly about the Indian Premier League and how he hoped that a shortened version of the world’s premier t20 league be conducted despite the pandemic.

Buttler hopes for a trimmed IPL season.

“No news at the moment. We saw, initially, that it was going to be postponed. It’s very hard to see this changing in the immediate future, so I don’t see that as a possibility at the moment,” Buttler said in a Skysports podcast. “Obviously, it’s such a massive tournament for world cricket, so hopefully some of it can go ahead – perhaps a shortened tournament.

“Ashwin is the last person I want to self-isolate with”

Asked with whom he would least like to self-isolate with, Buttler quipped: “Ravi Ashwin, probably. It’s actually a year ago since I got ‘mankaded’ because I keep getting tweeted about it, saying ‘stay safe, don’t go outside’ with those pictures of me.”

Buttler, of course was referring to the infamous ‘mankad-gate’ that scarred last year’s IPL season. Ravichandran Ashwin, leading the Kings XI Punjab against Buttler’s Rajasthan Royals, found Jos Buttler backing up too far at the non-striker’s end, and decided to run him out (mankad) without any prior warning. This unprecedented move drew contrasting opinions to the table. While some thought that the ‘keeper-batsman was drawing an unfair advantage through his action and Ashwin was well within his place to run him out in the fashion that he did, others felt that it was just not in good taste to get a batsman out in that manner. Whenever this topic is brought up, a verbal discourse is often close behind. Both arguments are justified in their own ways, and whether Ashwin was right to do what he did is left up to the reader to decide.