The ongoing fourth T20I between India and England played at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad saw some of the best batting from Suryakumar Yadav, who was playing his maiden T20I innings, in what was his second match only. Yadav had made his debut in the second T20I along with Ishan Kishan but didn’t get to bat.
He was then dropped from the Playing XI for the third T20I, which India lost, and his exclusion caused quite a furor on social media with both fans and experts opining on the same. However, he was picked in the XI and was even promoted to no.3 in the 4th T20I as India batted first after Eoin Morgan won the toss and chose to chase.
Suryakumar Yadav [Image-BCCI]Suryakumar batted beautifully and scored his maiden half-century in his first outing. He started off extremely well, hitting Jofra Archer for a huge six off the first ball he faced in international cricket which was a 143kph screamer. He continued his good form and scored 57 runs with 3 sixes and 6 fours in his knock of 31 balls.
However, the mode he was dismissed turned out to be quite controversial after he was caught off Sam Curran by Dawid Malan at fine leg. However, replays showed that the ball had burst through Malan’s hands and touched the ground before the fielder gained control of the ball.
Despite repeated replays, TV umpire Virender Sharma couldn’t find concrete proof to overturn the soft signal of out, and hence Suryakumar walked back to the pavilion.
Dawid Malan takes a dubious catch of Suryakumar Yadav (Photo-Screengrab)
Virender Sharma was again in the spotlight as Adil Rashid took the catch of Washington Sundar close to the boundary ropes, but replays showed that his heel was touching the padding, but again the soft-signal from on-field umpires was out and hence the TV umpire decided in the favor on-field umpires and sent Sundar walking.
Once Soft Signal Is Given It Becomes Easier For TV Umpire To Decide: Michael Vaughan
During the Cricbuzz Live chat featuring Gautam Bhimani, Zaheer Khan, and Michael Vaughan, the former England captain opined that while the soft-signal (in the case of Suryakumar and Sundar dismissals) gave the TV umpire easy way to base his decision on something, the ICC needs to re-evaluate this soft-signal thing.
“I completely understand what happened in terms of the third umpire once that soft signal had been given out he had to give it out because he didn’t have enough evidence to prove that he hadn’t caught it I just don’t like the soft signal um out in the middle for catches on the boundary you know I get those soft signals around the back when umpires are 22 yards away and it’s hard enough to get a decision right from 22 yards away never mind 80 yards away.
Adil Rashid’s heel touching the boundary padding while taking Washington sundar’s catch (Photo-Screengrab)
I personally would get rid of the soft signal to catches on the outer boundary because I just don’t see how an umpire can be sure one way or the other that he can give it out or not out from such a distance away. So I would look at that if I was the ICC to whether we should just clear out the soft signal you just go upstairs to the third one part what can you see is it a catch or is it not and let the third umpire decide on those boundary catches like we saw today,” Vaughan opined.
India managed to make 185/8 in 20 overs with Rishabh Pant making 30, Shreyas Iyer making 37. For England, Jofra Archer picked 4/33.
Also Read: Zaheer Khan, Michael Vaughan Explain How To Negate Toss Factor In India In T20Is
