England captain challenged for backing up too far during washed-out third T20I
Andrew McGlashan14-Oct-2022Aaron Finch stopped short of confirming if he would endorse one of his bowlers running out a batter backing up, after Mitchell Starc appeared to warn Jos Buttler during the rain-interrupted third T20I in Canberra.After sending down the fourth ball of the over to Dawid Malan, which was jabbed back towards him, Starc turned and pointed at Buttler and the crease.He appeared to say something to Buttler which was not audible, but the stump mic did pick up Buttler saying, “don’t think I was”.Screenshots posted on social media of the delivery in question suggested Buttler was just out of his ground before the ball was released and, after Starc’s words, he was clearly in his crease.Finch said he had not seen the moment occur in the middle but that a first warning was probably the way to go, although he was not broadly in favour of the mode of dismissal.”I wasn’t aware, had no idea about that,” he said. “I think if batters get a warning then it’s fair game after that. That would go for most teams, I assume, if you give the batter a warning that they are getting a little too much ground before the ball is bowled. But I’m not a big fan of it, to be fair, personally.”Asked if he would be comfortable with a bowler completing a run out, Finch said: “Great question…”England allrounder Chris Woakes expressed a similar view on the use of a warning. “In my eyes that’s the best way to go about,” he said. “I’ve got no issue with warning guys. I personally wouldn’t run someone out [like that] but a warning, no issue with that.”Buttler has twice been run-out backing up. The first occasion was in an ODI against Sri Lanka in 2014 after two warnings from Sachithra Senanayake and again in the 2019 IPL when R Ashwin was the bowler.
Mitch Starc pointed out to Jos Buttler that he was leaving his ground before Starc released the ball.
Buttler replied “don’t think I was”.
These pics are from the ball before and the 3 balls after Starc made the comment. #AUSvENG pic.twitter.com/WruM3URh5y
— Andrew Donnison (@Donno79) October 14, 2022