'I'm not Deepti...' Mitchell Starc takes a dig at 'mankading' in exchange with Jos Buttler

It has been formalised in the rules of cricket as a run out but seems the debate over 'mankading' is not going to be over soon.

The latest episode is from the fifth over of the third and final T20I between England and Australia at Canberra on Friday.

Pacer Mitchell Starc was bowling to Dawid Malan with Jos Buttler - yes, again - at the non-striker's end.


While walking back to his mark after a delivery, the pacer indicated to Buttler that he was straying outside the crease at the non-striker's end and could be run out.

But it was the way Starc said it- carried across the cricketing world through the stump mic - that made heads turn even more.

"I'm not Deepti, but I might do it...Doesn't mean you can leave early," Starc told Buttler.

The reference here is to Indian women's team off-spinner Deepti Sharma who stirred a lot of debate online by running out England's Charlie Dean in a recent ODI match.

That incident saw a heated exchanges between those believe, like Ravichandran Ashwin, that running out a batter at the non-striker's end is a fair dismissal and that's why it is in the rules, and those who believe it is not in the spirit of the game even though it is in the rules.

After Starc's warning, Buttler shouted back, "I don't think I did." Here is a video clip.

Had Starc gone ahead and taken the bails off, that would have made it an embarrassing third time for Buttler to be out in that fashion. in 2014, he was run out by Sri Lankan spinner Sachithra Senanayake in an ODI, and in 2019, by off-spinner R Ashwin during an IPL game.

The mode of dismissal, informally called 'mankading' after the iconic Indian player Vinoo Mankad who did it in 1947-48, was always legit - earlier for unfair play, and now as a run out.

Starc was immediately trolled on Twitter by many Indian fans who thought he was unnecessarily virtue signalling, and by some others who thought he had no business bringing Deepti Sharma into it.