The third India vs England Test, which the hosts won by a huge margin, had its moments. From Sarfaraz Khan‘s debut to Yashasvi Jaiswal‘s commanding double ton to Ravindra Jadeja‘s all-round show, the match was a treat for cricket fans. The match had its controversial moments too. England captain Ben Stokes was unhappy with some of the dubious LBW calls during the course of the match. that left him and head coach Brendon McCullum bemused. Stokes, citing the example of Zak Crawley‘s LBW dismissal in the second innings to Jasprit Bumrah, suggested that the Umpire’s Call aspect should be scrapped.
“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,” said Stokes.
However, as Ben Stokes’ comments sent ripples across the cricket world, an old video of former England captain Nasser Hussain schooling Virat Kohli for questioning Virat Kohli went viral.
In the video, which was shot in 2021, Nasser Hussain explained the need for Umpire’s Call after the then-Indian skipper Virat Kohli had said something similar to what Stokes said.
The reason why there is Umpire’s call in DRS. Excellent explanation by Nasser Hussain. pic.twitter.com/t9SrJPSr08
— Mazher Arshad (@MazherArshad) February 19, 2024
In the video, Hussain can be seen explaining why the statement that if the ball tracker shows the ball is hitting the stumps then it is ‘out’ is not right.
Meanwhile, Ben Stokes clarified that he isn’t pinning the blame for his team’s loss on the technology but wants the DRS system to be more robust.
“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, and 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.”
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