‘We just wanted some clarity..’- Ben Stokes on Zak Crawley’s LBW dismissal in third Test
Source: X
England skipper Ben Stokes is not happy after Zak Crawley’s LBW decision in the third Test. He has called for the Decision Review System (DRS) to fragment the umpire’s call after Zak Crawley’s controversial dismissal in the second innings of the third Test against England.
England opener Zak Crawley scored just 11 runs off 20 balls in England’s second innings after he was declared LBW by Indian lethal pacer Jasprit Bumrah. The 26-year-old opener from England was given the soft signal of out by the Srilankan umpire Kumar Dharmasena. The English star opener immediately took review. At first, he thought the ball would clearly miss the leg stump but that did not happen. The ball trajectory showed the ball would hit the top of the leg stump. It was deemed umpire’s call and the batter had to go back to the pavilion.
We were a bit bemused: Stokes
He said, “The ball is quite clearly missing the stump on the replay. So, when it gets given the umpire’s call and the ball’s not actually hitting the stumps, we were a bit bemused. We just wanted some clarity from Hawk-Eye. It came back saying the numbers were saying that it was hitting the stumps, but it was the projection that was wrong. I don’t know what that means. Something’s gone wrong.”
“I think when [the] people in charge of it say something has gone wrong that is enough in itself. We’ve been on the wrong end of three umpire’s calls this game and that is part of DRS. You’re either on the right side or the wrong side. Unfortunately, we’ve been on the wrong side. I’m not saying and never will say that’s the reason why we’ve lost this game, because 500 is a lot of runs. You just want something consistent, so when the people that use the system are saying something that has gone wrong, whatever it is, who’s to say it’s not gone wrong at another time that could prove pivotal?” He further added.
Stokes clearly fuming in anger said, “Umpire’s call, I think we should just get rid of it. If it’s hitting the stumps, it’s hitting the stumps, then it’s a level playing field. It’s not me blaming that on what’s happened here, like I didn’t last week. It’s just … what’s going on?”
England scored only 122 runs in the second innings. They fought for only 39.4 overs after a mammoth target of 556. They lose by a huge margin of 434 runs. However, Stokes praised about overall Indian team performance in the third Test. Meanwhile, England skipper Ben Stokes is confident about their bounce back in the fourth Test, which will be played in Ranchi on February 23.
