From KXIP's short run to Suresh Raina: Here are top 5 controversies of IPL 2020

From Dhoni's aggressive reaction to Kings XI Punjab's controversial 'short run'.

Here are the top five controversies of Indian Premier League 2020:

Chris Jordan was called for a short run by square-leg umpire Nitin Menon at the striker's end. One angle on TV replays showed that Jordan had dragged his bat over the line, but despite that, the original decision made by Menon stayed, and KXIP lost that valuable one run that could have changed the result of the match.  

A thrilling clash between Delhi Capitals and Kings XI Punjab had stirred fresh controversy in the IPL 2020. Kings XI Punjab appealed against on-field umpire Nitin Menon's controversial 'short run' call during a close IPL match against the Delhi Capitals. 

Ponting had said that he wouldn't allow players from the team to run a batsman out at the non-striker's end using the controversial method in this year's Indian Premier League (IPL). He also said that he would have a 'hard conversation' with the Delhi Capitals off-spinner before the tournament.

Delhi Capitals player R Ashwin funny incident during the match against RCB ignited the mankading debate again. He warned Aaron Finch during the match for stepping out of the crease. 

After the incident he tweeted: "Let’s make it clear !! First and final warning for 2020. I am making it official and don’t blame me later on. @RickyPonting #runout #nonstriker @AaronFinch5 and I are good buddies btw. #IPL2020"

The incident happened in the 19th over when Shardul Thakur was handed over the ball in a tensed situation. SRH needed 25 runs to win off 11 deliveries with Rashid Khan on strike. Shardul was targeting the wide yorker and in the second delivery, the ball seemed to have crossed the tramline. Straight umpire Paul Reiffel stretched his arms wide to signal a wide but the agitated reaction from Dhoni and Shardul seemed to have forced Reiffel to change his mind and decide not to call it a wide delivery.

Even though many fans were left agitated by Dhoni's reaction and Reiffer's change of decision, the Section 2.12 of the IPL match playing conditions states: "Umpire’s decision: An umpire may alter any decision provided that such alteration is made promptly. This apart, an umpire’s decision, once made, is final."

Indian cricketing legend Sunil Gavaskar has found himself in a controversy following his comments on Virat Kohli and Anushka Sharma during Royal Challengers Bangalore’s (RCB) against Kings XI Punjab (KXIP) in Indian Premier League (IPL) 2020. Bollywood actress and wife of Kohli, Anushka later took to social media Instagram to send a strong message to Gavaskar.

However, Gavaskar’s comments was not taken well by Kohli and Anushka’s fans as they slammed the former Indian captain on social media platform Twitter. While Kohli dropped two easy catches of centurion KL Rahul in the match, he failed to make a mark with his willow and was dismissed off just one run. 

Gavaskar during the match allegedly said: “Inhone lockdown me to bas Anushka ki bowling ki practice ki hain". (Virat Kohli has only trained against Anushka’s bowling during the lockdown). 

However, Gavaskar later cleared the statement he made. 

Chennai Super Kings owner and former BCCI president N Srinivasan reacted to veteran batsman Suresh Raina pulling out of IPL 2020 as he said that the southpaw will regret his decision of heading back to India and would want to come back in some point of time apart from the hefty INR 11 crore per season of his salary.

Entire CSK fan base was left shocked when the Super Kings announced that Raina will miss IPL 2020 due to ‘personal reasons’. While speculation was rife that positive cases in the CSK contingent played a role in Raina pulling his name out of IPL 2020, the report in Outlook which had comments from Srinivasan as well, stated that Raina was unhappy with his hotel room and wanted a similar room which was allotted to MS Dhoni. Apparently, a room without balconies made Raina ‘claustrophobic’ in the strict bio-secure environment.