Drama over the Decision Review System (DRS) continued to hog all the limelight after the end of the Rajkot Test as India vanquished England by 434 runs. England captain Ben Stokes has asked for DRS to scrap the umpire’s call over Zak Crawley’s dismissal in the second innings.

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While after hitting the pads, the ball was projected to be missing the top of the leg stump, but the DRS call showed it clipped the leg stump, leaving everyone in the England camp confused (for the second time in this series). 

During the ninth over of the second innings, Jasprit Bumrah trapped Crawley in front, only for the England opener to take a review immediately and lose it. Following the replays that showed the ball clip the top of the leg stump, resulting in him getting out since the umpire had adjudged it out with the naked eye, Crawley walked away in disbelief while the Indian team celebrated.

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Crawley was on the receiving end for the second time in this series after getting out LBW off Kuldeep Yadav during the Vizag Test, a decision Stokes called ‘wrong’ at that time.

“We just wanted some clarity around Zak’s DRS when the images came back,” revealed Stokes after the Rajkot Test. 

“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. So, we just wanted some clarity from the Hawk-Eye guys.”

“It came back saying the numbers, or whatever it is that is, it was 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, so, yeah.”

“It’s not me blaming that on what’s happened here, like I didn’t last week. It’s just… what’s going on?” the England captain added.

Unhappy Stokes hates playing blame game

While Stokes admitted that such calls are not the reason behind them losing two back-to-back Tests, he said something needs to be changed in the technology, starting from the umpire’s call rule.

“It is not something you pin down to result of the game. Sometimes when you are on the wrong end of those decisions it hurts, but that is part of the game. You want them to go your way, sometimes they do, and sometimes they don’t.”

“You just want a level playing field. The umpires have an incredibly hard job as it is, especially in India when the ball is spinning. My personal opinion is if the ball is hitting the stumps, it is hitting the stumps. They should take away the umpire’s call if I’m being perfectly honest. I don’t want to get too much into it because it sounds like we are moaning and saying that is why we lost the Test match,” Stokes added.

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