While India has got most things right in this ongoing five-match Test series against England, Decision Review System (DRS) is something Virat Kohli and Co, need to work on. The DRS issue came to light after two unsuccessful reviews of Siraj on Day 2 of Lord’s Test match.
In the 21st and 22nd over of the England innings, Siraj rapped England captain Joe Root on the pads and immediately went up. While the first appeal appeared close – still the ball tracker showed it missed the leg-stump and the review was lost.
The second time, while the pacer persuaded Kohli to take it upstairs, wicket-keeper Rishabh Pant tried his best to convince him not to, given that even on the impact it looked not out. In the end, Kohli believed Siraj and two reviews were wasted just like that.
The former India batsman Sunil Gavaskar addressed India’s DRS woes and made it clear that he feels the wicketkeeper should be the one who makes the final call on referring the decision.
“I believe only the wicketkeeper should decide whether it’s worth going for a DRS, because every bowler thinks the batsman is out. The first one was a bit close, but on the second appeal, Rishabh Pant was constantly saying ‘don’t take it, don’t take it,’ but at the last second, Kohli reviewed,” Gavaskar said on the Sony Sports Network.
“If you have to take the review, you need to think what the situation and who the batsman is. Virat Kohli probably thought that if India can get Joe Root early, we can get the rest of the batsmen out quickly,” he added.
As far as the second Test is concerned, the hosts managed to get 391 runs on the board in their first innings in reply to India’s 364 and have taken a lead of 27 runs. Thus, with two more days to go in this Test match, it will be interesting to see how both the teams go about this match.
(With Sony Sports Inputs)
