Slamming England captain Ben Stokes for his comments against the ‘umpire’s call’, batting legend Sunil Gavaskar has asserted that Test matches will be completed in two and a half days if the rule is scrapped.
Gavaskar’s remarks followed England captain Ben Stokes’ call to overrule the umpire’s call after the team lost the third Test in Rajkot by 434 runs.
The England all-rounder had called for greater consistency in the umpire’s decision-making when Zak Crawley was leg before wicket in the second innings of the third Test in Rajkot.
“Yeah, just about Zak’s DRS. He was just giving us some information around how it was judged to be given out when the balls did not hit the stumps on the DRS. The ball did not hit the stumps on replay. It was apparently that numbers said that it hit the stump, but the image was wrong. So I don’t really understand what’s going on there,” Stokes had told the media after the Rajkot Test.
Gavaskar criticized Ben Stokes and the other opponents of the umpire’s call rule.
Gavaskar made note of the value of the umpire’s call on the first day of the current fourth Test. The legendary batsman brought up the incident involving England’s opener Ben Duckett, who was declared not out after the ball clipped the stumps, according to the umpire’s call.
Duckett made it through a narrow DRS call when umpire Kumar Dharmasena declared him not out following an India-led LBW appeal. The ball was only brushing the off-stump, according to the replays.
“Have a look at this. This is the umpire’s call. All those who are saying the umpire’s call should be done away with, on replay (on this instance), the ball was hitting the stumps, which meant, Duckett ‘good bye’. In case, the umpire’s call is done away with and the ball is hitting the stumps, it will be given out. This is Test cricket, most matches will finish in 2-and-half-days,” Gavaskar while doing commentary on the opening day of the Ranchi Test.
