Former England captain Michael Atherton criticized Akash Deep for giving a send-off to opener Ben Duckett in the first innings of the fifth Test at Kennington Oval, London. Duckett was dismissed by Akash Deep when he was trying to play a reverse scoop.

After dismissing Duckett, Deep put his arm around the batter’s shoulder and had a friendly chat with him. Duckett, however, was calm and didn’t react. India’s veteran batter KL Rahul did the right thing by pulling Deep aside.

“I would have hated that, if a bowler puts his arms around me having just dismissed me. Stay out of the way,” Michael Atherton said on Sky Sports Cricket.

Atherton said cricket is a non-contact sport, and Deep didn’t do the right thing when he put his arm around Duckett’s shoulder.

“I like to give cricketers maximum leeway on the field because it is an emotional, passionate game. I like to see them getting stuck in. I don’t like the match referees getting involved. But it’s a non-contact sport, and something like that will end in problems. So I think the match referee has to stamp that out,” he reckoned.

Former Indian head coach Ravi Shastri also concurred with Michael Atherton and said there should have been no physical contact.

“No physical contact. Because what it can lead to, Duckett at the moment might have been thinking something else, another player with fiesty temperament wouldn’t have liked it and could have done something which he would have regretted,” he said.

India has set a target of 374 for England, and the hosts ended the third day’s play at 50-1.