The Day 5 of the third India vs England Test at Lord’s began on a horrific note for the visitors as Rishabh Pant, KL Rahul and Washington Sundar departed in quick succession. India needed 135 at the start of the day to win, but those three dismissals pushed India on the brink of a loss in the third Test. While Pant fell to an absolute ripper by Jofra Archer, Sundar was undone by a dream caught and bowled dismissal by the same England star.
It was, however, the dismissal of KL Rahul that got former Indian cricket team captain Sunil Gavaskar talking. The batter was out LBW off Ben Stokes but he was given not out initially. Rahul tried to defend the ball but his bat bat was stuck behind the pad. The ball struck his front pad and Stokes was super confident he had got the Indian batter. The DRS showed ball was hitting the middle stump.
Gavaskar did not agree with how the DRS showed the ball’s trajectory.
“Surprisingly, this one didn’t bounce that much. When Indian bowlers were bowling balls were going above the stump mostly in reviews,” Gavaskar said on air. Michael Vaughan, who was his fellow commentator, tried to diffuse the situation.
“I am questioning the technology,” Gavaskar then said.
On Day 4 Sunil Gavaskar had blasted the ball-tracking technology after England’s Joe Root survived a review during Day 4 of the third Test between England and India.
During the 38th over of England’s second innings, Root was hit on his pads by a ball from Siraj and the Indian players were convinced that he was out. While the umpire signalled not-out, Siraj and captain Shubman Gill decided to go for the review. Replays showed that although the leg stump was completely visible at the time of impact, the ball moved quite a bit and it was ruled ‘umpire’s call’. However, Gavaskar was not happy with the dismissal as Siraj and the rest of the team was left disappointed.
“You’re saying it was going to kiss the leg stump? There’s no way. It was knocking the leg stump off. The only good thing is that India have not lost the review,” Gavaskar said on commentary.
Similar sentiments were echoed by former England batter Jonathan Trott as well.
“I am flabbergasted. Having looked at that replay, I thought it was crashing into the inside part of the leg stump. Watching it in real time, I couldn’t believe it was missing,” Trott added on air.