India might have won the five-T20I series against England with a margin of 4-1, having won the fifth and final match in Mumbai by 150 runs. But the controversy about the concussion substitute that happened in the 4th game in Pune, refuses to die down.
Shivam Dube, who returned to the Indian XI, scored 53 runs to help India post a good score. During his knock, Dube was hit on his helmet and while he continued to bat for a couple of overs more, it seemed he suffered a concussion in the dressing room.
India then brought on Harshit Rana for his T20I debut as a concussion sub, much to the dismay of the England side and former England cricketers. Rana ended up with three important wickets as India won the game and took a 3-1 lead in the series.
England captain Jos Buttler even mocked the incident from the previous match by referring to his four substitutes for the fifth T20I as 'Impact Subs'. Now, ICC match referee Chris Broad has made some explosive comments about the incident. He questioned why an Indian match-referee, Javagal Srinath in this case, was officiating in a match involving India.
Chris Broad, on X, claimed that ICC was returning to the 'bad old' days of 'bias and corruption' by allowing non-neutral match officials to take charge.
"Independent match officials were brought in to stop situations like this! Why are the ICC returning to the 'bad old days' of bias and corruption?," Chris Broad wrote on X.
Reacting to a comment from former England captain Kevin Pietersen, who said that Harshit Rana wasn't a like-for-like replacement for Shivam Dube, Broad said he absolutely agrees.
"Absolutely agree. How can an Indian Match Referee get away with allowing this Indian replacement? Match officials should be independent to omit bias! (sic),” Broad said.
It also has to be noted that Broad was officiating an England vs Pakistan match last year in May at the Oval. Asked to comment on the posts, he told Cricbuzz, "I have nothing more to say."
Broad has officiated in 622 games on the international circuit so far, which ranks him third among most matches, behind Ranjan Madugalle (798) and Jeff Crowe (656).
Sunil Gavaskar slammed the Indian team management, saying even allowing a concussion substitute wasn't correct.
"In the Pune game, Dube batted right till the end after having got hit on the helmet earlier, so clearly, he was not concussed. So, allowing a concussion substitute itself was not correct. Yes, there could have been a substitute in case he had strained a muscle while batting, but that would have been only for fielding and he could not have bowled," Gavaskar wrote in a Telegraph column.
"Even by the most generous stretching of the like-for-like term, there was nothing much between Dube and Rana. With tongue firmly in cheek, one can say that they are the same height and have the same standard in fielding. Otherwise, there's nothing like for like as far as they are concerned. England has every reason to feel done in. This Indian team is superb and doesn't need its wins to get tarnished by such acts,” he stated.