Speaking at a virtual press conference ahead of the first ODI against England, Kohli said, “I played for a long time when there was no DRS. Right. If the umpire made a decision, whether the batsman liked it or not, it stayed like that. Vice versa the umpire gave it not out and it was out, it stayed like that, whether it was marginal or not.”
“According to me, umpire’s call right now is creating a lot of confusion. When you get bowled as a batsman, you don’t expect the ball to hit more than 50 per cent into the stumps to consider yourself bowled. So from basic cricket common-sense, I don’t think that there should be any debate on that. If the ball is clipping the stumps, that should be out whether you like it or not, you lose the review,” he added.
Earlier, Kohli had expressed disappointment over Suryakumar Yadav’s dismissal in the fourth T20I against England. Yadav was given out after a catch was referred. Although replays were inconclusive, the soft signal of out stood.
“That’s how simple the game has to be if it hits the stumps, or it misses the stumps. It doesn’t matter how much it’s hitting, and those kinds of things, because it’s creating a lot of confusion. And you know the one more factor that needs to be considered is that, you know, how the fielding team responds to a dismissal that is claimed is also somewhere, defining soft signals as well,” he added,
“You have to question what the spirit of the game is and what those guidelines are, because if, things like that happened with the Indian cricket team overseas, then you are talking about a totally different conversation of spirit of the game,” the Indian captain went on to add.
Kohli also pointed out that with big tournaments coming up, such controversial dismissals could adversely impact games. “There’s a lot at stake in the future with the big tournaments, and you don’t want some grey area factors in the game, which leaves you with no clarity to be the defining factors of those big tournaments,” he stated.
India and England will meet in the first of the three ODIs in Pune on Tuesday.
--By A Cricket Correspondent