Former India cricketer Sunil Gavaskar seemingly trolled England captain Ben Stokes and all naysayers of the contentious umpire's call rule in cricket after opener Ben Duckett was saved by the same on day one of the ongoing 4th Test being played in Ranchi.
Sunil Gavaskar stated that if the umpire's call is removed, Test matches will be completed in two and a half days, adding that it is not ideal to issue all referrals in case the tracking system shows the ball clipping the stumps.
In the 9th over of the Ranchi Test, umpire Kumar Dharmasena gave Ben Duckett not out after Ravindra Jadeja appealed for LBW. The replays suggested that the ball was hitting Duckett outside the line of the off-stump, but the ball-tracking system showed at least some part of it was hitting him in line while the ball went on to clip the bails.
However, the decision went in favor of the England opener as on-field umpire Dharmasena's decision stayed.
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"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 'goodbye'. 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 told Sports 18 during commentary.
Notably, England captain Ben Stokes had called for the umpire’s call to be scrapped in frustration with the LBW of Zak Crawley in the second innings of the 3rd Test in Rajkot.
This happened after Jasprit Bumrah got Crawley in front of the stumps and the umpire's call went in favour of the bowling team on that occasion. Notably, the visuals suggested the ball missing the stumps, but the on-field umpire's call stayed, leaving Ben Stokes baffled.
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"Yeah, just about Zak's DRS. He was just giving us some information about 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 said after the match.
