Alastair Cook, former England captain, questioned the decision made by match referee Javagal Srinath, who allowed Harshit Rana to come in as a concussion substitute for Shivam Dube in the fourth T20I between India and England.
Fast bowler Harshit came in as a controversial concussion substitute to make a T20 debut to remember, taking 3-33 to help India to a 15-run win over England in the fourth T20I at the Maharashtra Cricket Association Stadium in Pune on Friday.
Put into bat first, Hardik Pandya and Dube, a left-hand batsman, added 87 for the sixth wicket to rescue India from 79-5 to 181-9 in the fourth T20I in Pune.
Meanwhile, Rana and leg-spinner Ravi Bishnoi led the attack with three wickets apiece as India bowled England out for 166 to win by 15 runs and take a decisive 3-1 lead in the five-match series.
The ICC guidelines stipulate: ‘The ICC match referee should normally approve a concussion replacement request if the player is a like-for-like player.’
“It’s such a great impact on the game. Replacing a big-hitting lower-order batsman who has bowled one over in the IPL 2020 with a bowler who cannot bat in and bowls heavy seam makes no sense whatsoever in my book.”
“The English should’ve probably won the game anyway; they would have liked to face the pace bowler instead of the leg-spinner; that makes no sense to me, mate.”
Cook said to TNT Sports, “Here they are with Washington Sundar sitting on the bench. You bring a fast bowler who apparently has a bat to replace Dube. Why on earth does that make sense?”
Upon the introduction of Rana, English captain Jos Buttler believes that his side should have won the game, yet he, too, was puzzled by the decision.
“We disagree with the decision. It isn’t a like for like subsitute. Either Shivam Dube has bolted the ball some 25 miles an hour or Harshit has raised his game by some 25 miles an hour. They did have a like for like replacement with Ramandeep Singh, so we are really confused as to how Harshit was allowed into the Match. We’ll be asking Javagal [Srinath,the match referee] a few questions”.
“We had no consultation. When I went in to bat, I asked the umpire why Harshit was on the field, and he said he was the concussion sub, which I found quite confusing”.
“I might just say in the next game at the toss we will be playing 12. I think we should have gone on to win the match, but we disagree with the decision,” said Buttler at a post-match conference.
