Shadab Khan joins forces with Ben Stokes to scrap Umpire's call from the Decision Review System (DRS)

Pakistan national team all-rounder Shadab Khan who is captaining Islamabad United in the ongoing Pakistan Super League 2024 edition, was furious and happened to be joining forces with England captain Ben Stokes in terms of asking the rule makers to scrap the Umpire’s call from the Decision Review System (DRS) in the wake of an incident that unfolded against the favor of Islamabad in their recent PSL clash against Quetta Gladiators.

Last week, Ben Stokes had gone raging after the on-field umpire’s decision against Zak Crawley remained the same even after the batter took DRS. Jasprit Bumrah had trapped him for LBW which happened to be missing the stumps but the DRS decision remained in favor of the Indians as the ball just clipped one of the stumps. Stokes argued to scrap the Umpire’s call all over and Shadab Khan supported his argument yesterday.

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Watch the controversial DRS of Rilee Rossouw in PSL 2024

Shadab Khan: "I think technology was at fault. A different ball was shown (on the ball tracker for the Rilee Rossouw review). These small mistakes shouldn't be happening in such a big tournament."#HBLPSL9 | #QGvIU pic.twitter.com/lc6eaYrKZD

— Grassroots Cricket (@grassrootscric) February 22, 2024

The incident occurred during the 2nd innings of match number 8 of the Pakistan Super League between Islamabad United and Quetta Gladiators. The latter team were chasing down a total of 139 at the Gaddafi stadium in Lahore and was in a crucial situation when Rilee Rossouw was batting in the 11th over bowled by Salman Ali Agha.

As Rossouw tried to play the conventional sweep shot, he missed the entire line length with the ball from Agha striking straight into the pads. The on-field Umpire was quick to raise his finger and gave out without much contemplation with Shadab Khan and his Islamabad United erupting in celebrations.

However, their celebrations were restricted when Rossouw went for the DRS and the ball tracking animation showed something baffling. The ball pitching wasn’t much of an issue but the first impact of the ball into the pads was a few meters off from where the ball struck.

The 3rd umpire would then ask the on-field Umpire to reverse his decision and then Rilee Rossouw went on to lead the Quetta Gladiators towards a famous yet controversial 3-wicket victory to go 2nd in the points table with a 100% win record after 3 matches.

Shadab Khan was frustrated and angry as to how the DRS technology could be so much at fault as it not only denied them 2 important points but also raised questions regarding the accuracy of the DRS. With that win, the Gladiators have matched the 100% record of runners-up from the 2023 season Multan Sultans who sit on top of the points table due to a greater run-rate.

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Shadab Khan takes a dig towards PSL and DRS

During the post match presentation party, Shadab Khan expressed his disappointment and disapproval of the Decision Review System, claiming that it was the reason why Islamabad United lost the match from a winning point. He also took a dig towards PSL organizers for making such silly mistakes with the technology.

“I think technology was at fault for this loss. We were shown a different ball as to the review ( the review of Rossouw). I bowled 4 overs as a leg spinner, it wasn’t turning much. This one showed impact outside off and spinning away further. In a big tournament like this, there shouldn’t be such mistakes.” – Shadab Khan said after the match. 

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