Former England captain Nasser Hussain agrees with Ben Stokes’ take on Zak Crawley’s controversial LBW call in the 3rd Test against India, but he refused to back the Test captain’s suggestion that the umpire’s call should be scrapped. Stokes was unhappy with how opening batter Crawley was given out in the second innings of the Rajkot Test.
The ball-tacking visuals showed that the ball would have missed the stumps in the 9th over.
The Decision Review System (DRS) has been subjected to several controversies, with the umpire’s call being prominent. Stokes wants the governing body to remove this part from the overall use of technology.
Crawley had to go back as the DRS review upheld the on-field umpire’s call. However, the replays suggested that the ball was missing the stumps. Stokes revealed that the match referee informed him that the ball was hitting the stumps even though the visual was the opposite.
‘I like the DRS and also the umpire’s call part. Apart from Stokes, Virat Kohli has also spoken against the umpire’s call. The two want to scarp the call’s part. But the umpire’s call is not there to protect the officials, but because of the technology’s margin of error,” Nasser Hussain wrote in his Daily Mail column.
“There have been changes in the system. The LBWs of Ollie Pope and Zak Crawley didn’t look high because they have increased the hieght by 1.3 centimetres. I would agree with Ben Stokes on the visual part. If the picture is showing that the ball will miss the stumps, it should be not out,” he added.
Virat Kohli has criticized the umpire’s call for confusing the players. He had said that if the ball is shown to be clipping the stumps. It should be given out because bails will likely fall in that scenario.
England lost the match by 434 runs after getting bundled out for 122 while chasing 599 in the series’ third game. The fourth test will be played on February 23 in Ranchi.