Delhi Capitals’ Ravichandran Ashwin is “looking forward” to catching up with head coach Ricky Ponting ahead of the 13^th season of the Indian Premier League (IPL) in the UAE. Ponting, who arrived in the UAE on Thursday, is in quarantine for six days as mandated by the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) in its standard operating procedures. Ashwin, who arrived in the country last weekend, is also serving the mandatory quarantine period. Delhi Capitals traded Ravichandran Ashwin ahead of the IPL 2020 auction with Kings XI Punjab. 

Look forward to catching up coach Can’t wait to get out there and play again. https://t.co/YExkedkIhK

— Ashwin (@ashwinravi99) August 26, 2020

“Really hard to leave my family behind at this time, but next stop Dubai. See you soon,” Ponting tweeted from inside an aircraft in Australia before flying out for Dubai. 

Ashwin retweeted Ponting’s message and added his comment: “Look forward to catching up coach. Can’t wait to get out there and play again.” 

Ponting had recently talked about having “a hard conversation” with Ashwin over the “Mankading” mode of dismissal. Ashwin ran out Jos Buttler at the non-striker’s end when Buttler had been backing up outside his crease during a league-stage game in IPL 2019. 

“I’ll be having a chat with him about (Mankading), that’s the first thing I’ll do. That is going to be a hard conversation I will have with him. I think, even him, looking back now, probably he’d say it was within the rules and he’s right to do it,” Ponting had said on The Grade Cricketer podcast. 

Ashwin, however, responded to Ponting’s comments saying he had “a very interesting chat” with the former Australia skipper over the controversial mode of dismissal. 

“Ricky Ponting hasn’t yet reached (Dubai). After he comes, we will sit for a chat with him. He said he wants to have a conversation. We have already talked over the phone. It was a very interesting chat,” Ashwin said on his YouTube channel on Tuesday. 

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“Watching that last season, as soon as it happened, I actually sat our boys down and said ‘Look, I know he’s done it, there’ll be others around the tournament who’ll think about doing this well but that’s not going to be the way that we play our cricket. We won’t be doing that,’” Ponting had said. 

“But this is not within the spirit of the game, not in the way I want, at least with the Delhi Capitals anyway,” he added.