Latest Sports News Updates : Ben Stokes, the captain of England, has called for a review of the Decision Review System (DRS) in the wake of a controversial leg before wicket call that cost his team dearly in the third Test against India in Rajkot. The batter in question, Zak Crawley, chose to request a review after challenging Kumar Dharamasena’s judgment to send him leg before wicket to Jasprit Bumrah. But even though the trajectory indicated the ball would miss the upper part of the leg-stump, Crawley was disappointed with the ruling.
It wasn’t the first time Crawley was caught off guard in a close DRS call; he had encountered a similar circumstance in the previous Test. Following the game, Stokes and head coach Brendon McCullum expressed their displeasure with the ruling and asked match referee Jeff Crowe for clarification.
Stokes disclosed that although an inaccuracy in the generated image was acknowledged, Hawk-Eye verified that the underlying computations validated the choice made on the field.
“We just wanted some clarity around Zak’s DRS when the images came back,” Stokes stated.
“The replay shows that the ball is definitely missing the stump. We were therefore a little confused when the umpire called it even though the ball hadn’t really touched the stumps. We simply requested clarification from the Hawk-Eye team.
“It reported that the projection was incorrect, even if the statistics, or whatever it was, indicated that it was striking the stumps. I’m not sure what that implies. Well, something is obviously wrong. I’m not attributing that to what has transpired here, any more than I did the previous week. Just what is going on, please?
In the Test match in Rajkot, England lost by an overwhelming 434 runs, and Stokes said he didn’t want to attribute the team’s loss mostly on DRS calls. But he said the umpire’s call had to be thrown out completely.
“This game, we have lost three umpire calls, and that is a component of DRS. Either you’re on the correct side or the incorrect side. Regretfully, we have been in the wrong camp. 500 runs is a lot of runs, so I’m not saying and I never will say that’s why we lost this game.”It cannot be solely attributed to the outcome of the match. It stings sometimes to be on the losing side of such choices, but that’s just part of the experience. Sometimes they follow your wishes, and other times they don’t.
All you want is for there to be fair play. Even without the ball spinning, umpires have a very difficult job. This is especially true in India. In my view, the ball is striking the stumps if it is making contact with them. ‘Umpire’s call’ ought to be removed, to be completely honest. It sounds like we are whining and claiming that’s why we lost the Test match, so I don’t want to dig too into it.
Since Ben Stokes assumed leadership of the team as Test captain, England’s largest defeat (measured in runs) has been the 434-run loss. On Day 4, the visitors collapsed in just two sessions, managing a meagre 122 in the 557-run chase as India’s batting order, spearheaded by teenage stars Sarfaraz Khan, Shubman Gill, and Yashasvi Jaiswal, tore apart the opposition.