Former England skipper Nasser Hussain says that he agrees with Ben Stokes’ take on Zak Crawley’s controversial dismissal in the third Test where he was given LBW. However, he does not back Stokes’ decision to scrap the Umpire’s call of the rule book.
Ben Stokes expressed his disappointment with the LBW decision to dismiss Zak Crawley as the ball-tracking visuals were showing the ball missing the stumps in the ninth over. Zak Crawley was also involved in another controversial DRS decision leading to his wicket in the second Test.
Nasser Hussain stated that technology can make errors and claimed that as the reason for the existence of the umpire’s call. He said that the umpire’s call was there to not save the officials but because there is a margin of error in the technology.
Hussain supported Ben Stokes in his Crawley’s dismissal showing the ball was missing the stumps and he said that in case of missing the stumps, the umpire’s call cannot stand as the upheld decision.
“Technology can be fallible but I’ve always been very strong on the fact I like the DRS and I also like the umpire’s call. Look at the shemozzle with VAR in football. It’s just not like that in cricket.”
“Stokes and others like Virat Kohli may want to get rid of it but the umpire’s call is not there to protect the officials it’s there because of the margin of error in the technology,” Nasser Hussain said in his Daily Mail column.
“Bear in mind, also, there have been a couple of changes in the system and the ball can now clip the top of the bails. The lbws for Ollie Pope and Zak Crawley in the third Test did look high but they have increased the height by 1.3 centimetres. One thing I will agree on with Ben. He said the visual of Crawley’s dismissal showed the ball missing the stumps. If that’s the case you can’t have that,” he added.
Ben Stokes was also unhappy about Zak Crawley’s dismissal in the second Test
Zak Crawley was initially given not out during the second innings of the second Test but Rohit Sharma and co decided to take the DRS which showed in the ball tracking that the ball will hit the leg stump.
However, when seen through a naked eye and replay it does not seem like it would hit the leg stump. Zak Crawley and Ben Stokes were unhappy with the DRS showing hitting the stumps when it should at least have been an umpire’s call.
India is leading the series currently by 2-1 as they have won two consecutive Test matches after losing the series opener in Hyderabad. They won the second Test in Vizag by 106 runs and the third Test in Rajkot by a record 434 runs.
The hosts are aiming to seal the series in the fourth Test which will be played at the Jharkhand State Cricket Association Stadium in Ranchi and the Ben Stokes-led England on the other hand is in a do-or-die situation.
