The Indian off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin and one of the on-field umpires, Nitin Menon, got into a heated argument on the third day of the first test match between India and New Zealand as the umpire was not happy with Ashwin’s follow-through.
Since India were not getting too many wickets with the old ball, Ravichandran Ashwin was trying to do something different from round the wicket angle and he was actually coming right across the umpire’s vision in his follow-through.
While doing so, Ashwin was not stepping into the danger area of the pitch and hence, was not damaging the playing surface, but the umpire was not getting a clear sight of the ball going through to the batsman and was finding it tough to judge the LBW appeals.
Ravichandran Ashwin was actually reminded a couple of times gently by Nitin Menon, who is one of the reputed umpires in the game, that he was obstructing his vision but he continued with that angle and eventually the umpire had to tell him that he couldn’t continue with it anymore.
Ravichandran Ashwin was also getting in the way of the non-striker
When Ashwin got indulged into an argument with the umpire, both the on-field umpires had to go to India’s stand-in captain Ajinkya Rahane to convey to him that Ashwin was obstructing the umpire’s vision with the angle that he was using.
Apart from the obstruction of his own vision, one of the other things that the umpire Nitin Menon was bothered about was the fact that in his attempt to not step into the danger area, Ashwin was also getting in the way of the non-striker while going right across in his follow-through.
Ashwin argues with umpire Nitin Menon pic.twitter.com/R5qMxyeDi0
— Sunaina Gosh (@Sunainagosh7) November 27, 2021
However, after his argument with the umpire, Ashwin got back to his conventional run-up as India later got some wickets in quick succession as well to make their way back into the game.
