India’s Tricky Early Relationship With DRS

First dates are hard, and the one India are having with DRS has thrown up its share of adorable and awkward moments.

Batting for the first time in front of his home crowd in a Test match, Cheteshwar Pujara used the system to overturn an lbw decision against him and score a “special century” in front of his family and friends. That high, however, dissipated in the second innings when he was again caught in front of the stumps again but did not realise the ball had pitched outside leg. His wingman M Vijay was no help, and his coach Anil Kumble gave him an earful for not being brave enough to take the plunge. Poor Pujara.

In Visakhapatnam, India’s difficulties in judging when to use the system came out in the span of three balls from Moeen Ali. A ripping offbreak took Wriddhiman Saha‘s pad and after an eternity Kumar Dharmasena raised his finger. Perhaps the delay encouraged Saha to review, but replays showed it was three reds.Two deliveries later, Ravindra Jadeja went forward to defend the second ball he faced, expecting turn from Moeen bowling around the stumps. Instead he was met by a full delivery that held its line and struck him low on the front pad. Dharmasena upheld the appeal for lbw, and it was time to engage the temptress.

Jadeja strode down the pitch to get some advice from R Ashwin, his partner, who wasn’t sure it was a good idea. India now had only one review left. But they had just lost one of their best lower-order batsmen. It was probably worth the gamble. When the replays came on, it confirmed as much, with the ball missing leg stump by a whisker.

England and DRS have had a much longer fling, but that doesn’t necessarily mean they do not have their own issues. Alastair Cook, in the first morning of the series, was given out lbw after he missed a flick to a delivery from Jadeja that seemed like it would clearly miss leg stump. Here too the non-striker was consulted, but Haseeb Hameed, the 19-year old on Test debut, had enough to worry about without having to calculate the ball’s trajectory.

Courtesy : espncricinfo