|| India Correspondent ||
Team India successfully bounced back in the fourth game against England and equalled the series with a convincing win. However, they had to face a few umpiring blinders and the Indian skipper Virat Kohli on Thursday questioned the concept of proofs that are required to overturn a soft signal of dismissal which sparked controversy during the game on Thursday in Ahmedabad. Notably, during India's innings, questions raised on the judgement of Third Umpire Virender Sharma regarding the dismissal of Suryakumar Yadav.
Suryakumar got out to Sam Curran soon after scoring his maiden T20I half-century. He tried to play a big shot but Dawid Malan ended up grabbing the catch. But, the replay showed that the ball might have hit the ground when the England fielder was taking the catch. Since the on-field umpire gave him out, the third umpire stayed with that call saying 'lack of conclusive evidence'.
On being asked about this matter after the game, Virat Kohli said that rules should be simpler so that teams do not have to suffer as well.
"There was an instance in the Test series when Jinx (Ajinkya Rahane) caught the ball and wasn't sure. When there's a half-and-half effort, the soft signal becomes more important. I don't know why there cannot be a sort of "I don't know" call for the umpire as well. Why does it have to be a conclusive one? Because then that [dictates] the whole decision completely. Similar to the argument we have about umpire's call as well. You want these things ironed out to keep the game linear. But we want clarity on the field," Kohli said at the post-match presentation.
Another incident also took place in the game that brought the soft signal under scrutiny and it was in the last over of India's innings when Washington Sundar played an uppercut and he was caught by Adil Rashid at the boundary. However, replays showed that Rashid's foot touched the boundary line but third umpire Virender Sharma once again stayed with the on-field call.
However, India won the match by eight runs and the final match will take place on Saturday at the same venue.