England benefitted from a rare rule violation as India fell foul of the umpires on the second day of the third Test in Rajkot.
The hosts were hit with a five-run penalty during their innings of 445 after Ravichandran Ashwin was caught running on the protected area of the wicket.
Ashwin’s actions followed a warning given to Ravindra Jadeja on day one for the same offence, with umpire Joel Wilson informing Ashwin of the penalty in the 102nd over of their innings during the day’s first session, with India 358 for 7.
The law in question applies to both the batting and bowling teams and is designed to prevent players deliberately trying to rough up the surface and create rough patches.
The law defines the protected area as “that area of the pitch contained within a rectangle bounded at each end by imaginary lines parallel to the popping creases and 5 ft/1.52 m in front of each, and on the sides by imaginary lines, one each side of the imaginary line joining the centres of the two middle stumps, each parallel to it and 1 ft/30.48 cm from it”.
Speaking on TNT Sports, former England captain Alastair Cook suggested that Ashwin knew what he was doing.
“Is it deliberate? Yes, it is,” Cook said. “UIt’s a tactical ploy that you can disturb the middle of the wicket because Ashwin wants as much help [as possible] when he can bowl.
“Normally, it happens in the third innings. You’re 150-200 runs ahead and you think, ‘just make sure you get up and down the wicket’... that was gamesmanship there, wasn’t it?”
The penalty meant that when Zak Crawley and Ben Duckett began England’s reply, their total was already 5-0 before a ball had been bowled.
Ashwin made a useful 37 coming in at number nine as he and debutant wicketkeeper Dhruv Jurel helped build India’s total.
The series is tied at one apiece after the first two Tests of the five-match series.