Fans Furious At Australian Umpires’ ‘Double Standards’ After Shardul Thakur Warned For Bouncer
Updated - 18 Jan 2021, 07:10 PM
Indian pacer Shardul Thakur has bowled with great heart and passion troubling the Australian batsman in the fourth and the last Test of the Border-Gavaskar series against Australia in Brisbane. However, despite his medium pace, the on-field umpires, Bruce Oxenford and Paul Wilson have warned Thakur for dangerous bowling when he retorted to the bouncer strategy against Pat Cummins.
On Day 4 in the 71st over of Australia’s second innings, Thakur, with his tail up having already taken three wickets, bowled short balls to Cummins. The umpire deemed the third consecutive short ball as a no-ball. A few overs later in the 75th, Thakur once again went short of a length.
The umpire, Bruce Oxenford not only called it a wide but also issued a warning to Shardul Thakur for ‘intimidatory’ bowling.
The warning comes as a surprise to many as Thakur is generally a medium-fast swing bowler and not someone with express pace – he hardly bowls over 140 kph.
Fans on social media pointed out that the same umpires who gave Thakur a warning had no problem when Mitchell Starc bowled a barrage of bouncers to T Natarajan in the first innings.
Netizens are furious and have slammed the ‘double standards’ of umpiring by both the Australian umpires – because of the pandemic and quarantine protocols ICC has allowed both the umpires to be of the home country – for giving warning to Thakur for ‘intimidatory’ bowling to Pat Cummins, who is able to bat at number 8, but didn’t bat an eye on Starc who could have hurt number 11 T Natarajan with his lethal bouncers.
Starc can bowl 90 mph bumpers to Nattu , but Shardul can't bowl 80mph bumpers to Cummins, who is btw more than capable to bat.
Ridiculous double standards by Aussie Umpires!
Thoughts? @vishalmalpure10 @Paran2204 @rahulk_1019 @Fancricket12 @AMP86793444 @im_yash2307— Akash Deshpande (@akashd7781) January 18, 2021
@anamnadeem Starc bowling 90 mph bouncers to Natrajan wasn't intimidatory bowling.
Shardul bowling 80 mph to Cummins who is more than a capable as a batsman gets warned.
Ridiculous double standards by Bruce Oxenford!!!
— Mohit Adwani (@mohit_adwani258) January 18, 2021
Starc bouncing a #11 at 150ks is fine and legit, but Shardul bouncing a #8 at 130ks is a no ball. @ICC – FFS get the umpires to quarantine and have neutral umpires for tests at least.
— Sathyanarayanan Sridhar (@TheDewFactor) January 18, 2021
https://twitter.com/prateek_gayawal/status/1351048060382674948
https://twitter.com/NeelRai31/status/1351048112878579712
https://twitter.com/AnupamBhaumik_/status/1351048977978896386
Starc bowling 24 bouncer in 30 odd bowls while umpire give warnings and no ball to shardul who bowls just two bouncers
It's reflects umpires ability and country love….— Pratipalsinh Gohil (@pygohil_007) January 18, 2021
Did you see they called a Shardul 130 KPH short ball to Cummins a no ball for "intimidatory" bowling?
— IPL 2022 (@iplthebest) January 18, 2021
#GoodBadRidiculous @melindafarrell @beastieboy07 #Good Wade duck. Did not throw it away this time. Improvement.
In all reality, the S factor: Shardul, Sundar, Siraj. How #Good? #Bad Call: No ball for bouncers?
Decision(Desperation) #Ridiculous System: Warner & Smith. https://t.co/iAiVZg4G0M
— Broken Cricket Dreams Cricket Blog (@cricket_broken) January 18, 2021
Shardul Thakur picks 7 wickets in the match and saves Team India with a half-century
After injuries to 5 frontline bowlers, and after the debut of 3 youngsters, Shardul Thakur was picked for the last Test of the series – he has had a memorable match at the Gabba.
In between, he scored 67 runs in India’s first innings and staged a fighting 123-run stand with Washington Sundar – Thakur was the highest scorer of the team and kept India in the game.
Tagged:
Mitchell Starc Pat Cummins Shardul Thakur Washington Sundar
