During India’s first innings in the ongoing Headingley Test, English umpires had objected to Rishabh Pant’s stance of standing outside the crease and it is something that has left the batting great Sunil Gavaskar perplexed as well.

After the stumps on Day 1 in Leeds, the southpaw revealed he had to change his stance after being told by the umpire as batting outside the crease to combat swing formed footmarks in the pitch’s danger area.

However, Gavaskar wasn’t pleased by the logic, citing that footmarks don’t determine a batsman’s stance.

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“I was wondering why was he told to change his stance, if that is true. I only read it. Batsman can stand anywhere, even on the middle of the pitch and when the batsman goes down the track against the spinners (footmarks can form even then),” Gavaskar said while commentating on the third day of the match.

His co-commentator and former India batsman Sanjay Manjrekar termed it as “ridiculous”.

Pant spoke about this after the visitors got bundled out for 78 on the opening day of the match.

“Because I was standing outside the crease and my front-foot was coming into the danger area, so he (the umpire) told me that you can’t stand there,” Pant had said during the virtual post-day press conference.

“So, I have (had) to change my stance, but as a cricketer, I don’t have to think too much about that, because it’s everyone who is going to do that, umpires are going to say the same thing. I didn’t do that the next ball and you move on.”

Earlier this month, Sunil Gavaskar had said he would prefer neutral umpires to officiate Test matches and after this incident, the call to revert back to neutral umpires will get more attention.

Due to the COVID-induced travel restrictions, ICC had temporarily allowed home umpires to officiate in all the World Test Championships fixtures.

"I would still want to see neutral umpires because after you exhaust your 2-3 reviews, there could still be a decision that could be game-turning. To avoid the finger of bias, you should have neutral umpires," Gavaskar had said while commentating during the second Test.

(With PTI inputs)