Ashwin favours DRS in domestic cricket, calls it a helping agent to young batters

Senior spinner Ashwin praises BCCI's DRS inclusion in Duleep Trophy, emphasizing its importance for upcoming batters in international cricket.

Senior spinner Ravichandran Ashwin lauded BCCI's move to have DRS in the ongoing Duleep Trophy, saying it will help an upcoming batter to make necessary technical tweaks before his possible initiation into international cricket.

Ashwin was pinning his argument on the leg before dismissal of India D batsman Ricky Bhui against India C left-arm spinner Manav Suthar in the Anantapur-leg of Duleep Trophy on Friday evening.

Bhui was batting on 44 and looked fluent but he stretched forward to play a defensive prod, and got pinged on his pads.

The on-field umpire initially didn’t give him out as the bowler was forced to resort to the Decision Review System, which favoured the bowler’s plea for a leg before dismissal.

“DRS for domestic cricket is not just for the right decisions to be made. Ricky Bhuvi’s (Bhui) dismissal last evening against Manav Suthar is a classic case of a batter who will get away with this technique 10/10 times in FC cricket,” Ashwin wrote on his official X handle.

“This was not a faulty technique pre DRS but now it is. Back in the day batters were given not out just because they managed to get on the front foot,” he added.

Ashwin’s observation was spot on because in earlier days, umpires hardly gave a batter out if he had plonked his front foot forward, using pad as the first line of defence while tucking the bat behind the pads.