England were left frustrated with some umpiring decisions which did not go in their favour on the opening day of the day-night third Test against India in Ahmedabad on Wednesday, opener Zak Crawley said.
He was asked particularly about TV umpire overturning onfield umpire’s ‘out’ call of opener Shubman Gill and Rohit Sharma given not out of a stumping appeal off the bowling of Jack Leach towards end of the day’s play.
While Gill’s dismissal was overturned after looking at several angles, the third umpire did not take much time to declare Rohit not out. After Rohit was let off, captain Joe Root was heard saying “we just want consistency” to on-field umpire Nitin Menon.
“It’s very frustrating. We’re behind the game and we wanted those little 50-50 situations to go our way. That’s the way it goes sometimes. It’s certainly not our day. It does not help our chances,” Crawley said at the virtual news conference after the end of the day’s play.
“When we batted, Jack had one where it didn’t quite carry and it seemed like they looked at it from five or six different angles. When we were fielding it seemed like they looked at it from one angle. That’s where the frustrations lie,” he added.
“I can’t say whether they were out or not out, but I think the frustrations lie with not checking more thoroughly.”
Later, England skipper Joe Root and head coach Chris Silverwood sought umpiring consistency by taking up the matter with match referee Javagal Srinath, “who said that the captain was asking the right questions” of the on-field officials.
England were unhappy with two decisions made by third umpire C Shamshuddin.
“The England captain and head coach spoke with the match referee after play,” an England and Wales Cricket Board spokesperson said in a statement.
“The captain and head coach acknowledged the challenges the umpires faced and asked respectfully that in making any decisions there was consistency in the process. The match referee said the captain was asking the right questions of the umpires.”
Asked about Root’s conversations with the umpires Nitin Menon and Anil Chaudhary after the reviews, he said, “I would like to answer but I’ll leave that to the captain and senior players. As a young player I’ll keep my nose out of that situation, that’s for Joe, I think.”
Root chose to bat in the day-night Test but the visitors succumbed to India’s spin might to collapse to 112 all out inside two sessions. Left-arm spinner Axar Patel returned with figures of 6 for 38, for his second five-for in his second Test.
India ended the day on 99/3, trailing by just 13 runs with opener Rohit Sharma unbeaten on 57.
England’s batting centred around the right-handed opener Crawley, who was returning after missing the first two Tests with a wrist injury.
“It was easy to bat against the seamers, never easy to bat against spinners in these conditions. We should have got a few runs. if 200 would have been a nice and competitve score,” the 23-year-old, who made 53 off 84 balls, said.
Asked whether England erred in bringing in only one frontline spin bowler in Leach, he said: “We have very strong seamers and back them on any surface. It is above my pay grade, for sure, but I think that’s the way we were looking at it.
“If we had got a few more runs it might have helped our bowlers out a lot more. At the moment we are probably behind the game but there is plenty of time to fight back with our bowling line-up.”
Crawley was also disappointed that he could not convert his fifty into a big score.
“It is always nice to score a fifty in a Test match but you want to kick on and score more. For my first Test back, it was nice to get some runs.
“I think it is easier to bat during the day (in day-night Tests) but it is different over here to what it is in England,” he said.
With PTI Inputs
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