As the twelfth season of the Indian Premier League moves to the latter half of the tournament, with Kings XI Punjab at the second to last spot in the league's points table, their captain Ravichandran Ashwin continues to make headlines for all the wrong reasons. 

Comically enough though, everything that the former Indian all-rounder has done in the 2019 season fits perfectly for him, if Ashwin wants to become a part of the pro-wrestling world, whilst becoming a successful in-ring performer.

Created A Big Controversy Around Him

25th March 2019 was supposed to be a casual day for the IPL fans who were less than excited for a match between KXIP and Rajasthan Royals when Ashwin did the unthinkable and 'mankaded' Royals' batsman Jos Buttler after being unable to dismiss him by usual means. What made it worse was the fact that Ashwin publicly announced that he was unapologetic about the deed and that he did nothing wrong. 

Ravi Ashwin's Mankad garnered widespread condemnation from the cricket world.

But there's another key side to the debate.

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— Fox Cricket (@FoxCricket) March 26, 2019

Became The Perfect 'Heel' (Made The Audience Hate Him)

In the pro-wrestling world, a 'heel' is a character that makes the audience hate himself just to get a negative reaction out of them. Ashwin's attitude and actions during the 12th season have not been too likable. Disrespecting the honour with which the gentleman's game is commonly played got him a lot of flak from the cricket-crazy fans, fellow cricketers and even commentators. While Harsha Bhogle and Shane Warne had a social media spat about his 'mankading', Buttler's teammate, James Anderson showed his protest by shredding Ashwin's picture online.

EXCLUSIVE: @jimmy9 give us his unique take on @josbuttler's controversial run out last week...

More rows should be settled like this.

Full story on this week's #Tailenders https://t.co/YOQ4PMSwiu pic.twitter.com/hYCPpdSqJm

— Greg James (@gregjames) March 31, 2019 Called Himself 'The Best' In The Business

Much like some of the greatest wrestlers in the history of the WWE such as Chris Jericho, CM Punk and now even Shane McMahon, Ashwin called himself the best at what he does. 

“I would like to think that I am right up there and I have been for a long time now. It's my 11th season of the IPL, so I would like to think I have done a fairly good job. I have never shied away from competing with anyone. I am right on top of the pile,” Ashwin said as reported by the Times of India.

Got Himself Trolled To Entertain The Fans

Finally, the biggest goal of a pro-wrestler is to make the audience have the time of their lives, even if it comes at the cost of making yourself look like a fool. In a match between Kings XI Punjab and Delhi Capitals, Ashwin tried to 'mankad' Indian opener Shikhar Dhawan but 'Gabbar' was too smart for the Chennai-born and stayed inside the crease when Ashwin tried to dismiss. Later, to the delight of the audience, Dhawan even mocked him the next time he came for a run-up.

WATCH: Shikhar's dance moves on the crease

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— IndianPremierLeague (@IPL) April 20, 2019