In the wake of Zak Crawley’s dismissal in the second innings of the recently concluded third Test against India, England captain Ben Stokes has called for the Decision Review System (DRS) to scrap the umpire’s call.
The England opener was given out by umpire Kumar Dharmasena after a Jasprit Bumrah delivery rapped him on the pads. He reviewed the decision, believing that the predicted path showed the ball would miss the top of the leg stump. However, the replay showed the ball just clipping the top of the stump and the third umpire adjudged it an umpire’s call.
Crawley had no other option but to walk back. The right-handed batsman looked disappointed with the decision and was also seen saying something to the umpire as he made his way to the dressing room. It was the second time in the ongoing series that Crawley found himself on the receiving end of a marginal DRS call.
He was adjudged leg before in the second Test as well after India reviewed the original not-out decision. On that occasion, Ben Stokes had called the decision ‘wrong’. The veteran allrounder did not shy away from venting his frustration at the decision once again as he called for the scrapping of the umpire’s call rule.
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Ben Stokes against the umpire’s call:
After the Test ended, Ben Stokes as well as England head coach Brendon McCullum were seen talking to match referee Jeff Crowe to seek more clarity on the decision. While Ben Stokes made it clear that he was not blaming the DRS decisions going against his team as the reason behind the huge loss, he stated that the governing body should do away with the umpire’s call.
“We’ve been on the wrong end of three umpire’s calls this game and that is part of DRS. You’re either on the right side or the wrong side. Unfortunately, we’ve been on the wrong side. I’m not saying and never will say that’s the reason why we’ve lost this game, because 500 is a lot of runs.
“It is not something you pin down to result of the game. Sometimes when you are on the wrong end of those decisions it hurts but that is part of the game. You want them to go your way, sometimes they do, sometimes they don’t
“You just want a level playing field. The umpires have an incredibly hard job as it is, especially in India when the ball is spinning. My personal opinion is if the ball is hitting the stumps, it is hitting the stumps. They should take away ‘umpire’s call’ if I’m being perfectly honest. I don’t want to get too much into it because it sounds like we are moaning and saying that is why we lost the Test match,” Ben Stokes added.
Talking about the game, India thrashed England by 434 runs in the third Test to take a 2-1 lead in the five-match series. The fourth match is scheduled to be played from February 23 in Ranchi.
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