Indian off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin has compared his infamous mankading dismissal of England cricket Jos Buttler with India’s lockdown amid the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.

On his official Twitter account, Ashwin spoke about the incident which took place exactly a year ago.

“Hahaha, somebody sent me this and told me it's exactly been 1 year since this run out happened,” said Ashiwn. “As the nation goes into a lockdown, this is a good reminder to my citizens. Don't wander out. Stay inside, stay safe!”

Kings XI Punjab captain Ashwin was involved in the controversial ‘mankad’ dismissal of Rajasthan Royals batsman Buttler, while delivering the fifth ball of the 13th over, during the 2019 edition of Indian Premier League (IPL).

The off-spinner took the bails off at the non-striker’s end to dismiss Buttler, while he was out of the crease.

However, the side-on angle made it clear that Butler was still inside the crease, when Ashwin’s foot landed. But he decided to turn back and remove the bails as soon as Buttler took a few steps out of the crease.

The 32-year-old was convinced that he was well within the laws of the game to remove the bails and saw nothing wrong in it.

It must be noted that India's 1.3 billion people will go under "total lockdown" for 21 days to combat the spread of the coronavirus, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said Tuesday.

India has lagged behind other nations in the number of COVID-19 cases, but there has been a sharp increase in recent days to 519 infections, including 10 deaths, according to the government.