Hardik Pandya is okay with knocking out non-strikers who go off the crease.

Hardik Pandya, an all-rounder for India, is okay with bowlers ejecting non-strikers if they venture outside of the crease. Prior to the start of the T20 World Cup in Australia, Hardik also indicated he wasn’t bothered by discussions over the form of dismissal on The ICC Review podcast.

“We need to stop making a fuss about this. It’s a rule – [as] simple as that,” Hardik said. “To hell with the spirit of the game. If it’s there, [then] remove the rule – as simple as that. The ones who have a problem, good for them; it’s fine.

“Personally, I have no problem. If I am walking out [of the crease], and someone runs me out – fair enough. It’s my mistake, not the bowler’s. He is taking the rules to his advantage – [as] simple as that. That’ll not make a big deal.”

When Deepti Sharma ran Charlie Dean out at Lord’s in the final ODI of the series between England and India, the discussion over the fairness of such a decision and the spirit of cricket was reopened.

Before Deepti clipped the bails off to catch Dean short, England required 17 off 39 balls and were nine down.

The change of a player being run out by the bowler while backing up from Law 41 (which deals with unfair play) to Law 38 (which deals with run-outs) in its recent update helped the MCC de-stigmatize running non-strikers out earlier this March. Mitchell Starc, an Australian fast, recently suggested that umpires utilise on-ground cameras to make “short-run” judgments if the non-striker tries to gain an edge.

After warning Jos Buttler informally that the England batter might leave the non-end striker’s before he released the ball, Starc spoke. In such cases, Starc believed that deducting a run from the batting side would leave “no grey area.”

“Every time the batter leaves the crease before the front foot lands, dock them a run. There’s no grey area then,” he had said. “And in T20 cricket where runs are so handy at the back end and games can be decided by one, two, three runs all the time, if all of a sudden you get docked 20 runs because a batter’s leaving early, you’re going to stop doing it, aren’t you?”

Bowlers like R Ashwin, who ran Buttler out in a similar manner in an IPL match in 2019, have been outspoken about supporting the use of the punishment.

One of the most divisive and contentious issues in cricket in the past was running a non-striker out. In the past, bowlers who had previously practised running non-strikers out—like West Indies’ Keemo Paul during an Under-19 World Cup match, for instance—have backed off from doing so after facing criticism for their choice.

For more sports and entertainment news, follow us on Twitter and Instagram