• Home
  • Who Said What
  • Abolish Umpires Call Ben Stokes Makes Massive Statement After Rajkot Humiliation

'Abolish Umpire's Call..,' - Ben Stokes Makes Massive Statement After Rajkot Humiliation

image-lsse4z6uImages Presented By England Cricket Team (X.com)

English skipper Ben Stokes, who has been one of the most influential skippers in cricket history with his aggressive style of play, has spoken about one of the rules that concerns him a bit.

Speaking after the conclusion of the third Test in Rajkot, where England suffered a humiliating 434-run loss, Stokes expressed his displeasure over the dismissal of Zak Crawley, where they felt that the ball was missing the stumps after taking the review as the umpire's original decision of out stood, working not in their favour.

Stokes has been quite vocal about the DRS not being accurate previously as well, but now he wants the umpire's call to be scrapped totally, considering it only causes confusion. He believes that it should be out or not out depending on the ball hitting the stumps, regardless of what the umpire thought in any particular case.

"You just want a level playing field. The umpires have an incredibly hard job as it is, especially in India when the ball is spinning. My personal opinion is if the ball is hitting the stumps, it is hitting the stumps. They should take away the umpire's call if I'm being perfectly honest. I don't want to get too much into it because it sounds like we are moaning and saying that is why we lost the Test match."

The case in point was questionable when Crawley was given LBW against Jasprit Bumrah while batting on the score of 11. When reviewed, the replays showed the ball being just over the stumps. However, the match referee later confirmed that the percentage of the ball hitting the stumps was higher than what was seen, as the graphics were incorrect.

This massive confusion prompted the English side to take up the matter, only to be turned down by the match officials. Moving on, India and England will next feature in the fourth Test of the series to be played in Ranchi from 23rd February.