Virat Kohli Comments On Umpire’s Call Rule and England’s Controversial Spirit of Cricket

The last T20 international between Indian and England was undoubtedly the most entertaining one of all of the matches. Besides being the series decider, it involved some special moments like Rohit and Virat’s opening partnership, Bhuvneshwar Kumar’s outstanding bowling performance and what not.

To the bitter part of the game, a controversy arose in the 4th T20I when England batsman claimed a catch which did not look completed and sent Surya Kumar Yadav back to the pavilion. It is worth to be noted that Surya Kumar Yadav was the highest run-scorer in that particular game.

Dawid Malan caught Surya on the fine-leg boundary. England fielders celebrated and Malan too claimed the catch, but replays showed that he might have grassed it.

Thoughts on Dawid Malan’s catch to dismiss Suryakumar Yadav?#INDvENG pic.twitter.com/jvs2TqpcBy

— Wisden India (@WisdenIndia) March 18, 2021

However, the third umpire found no conclusive evidence to overturn the on-field umpire’s ‘soft signal’ which was out. Now, traditionally, the benefit of the doubt in a situation like this goes to the batsman but much to India’s surprise, this was not followed here.

Addressing a press conference ahead of India’s ODI series against England, Virat Kohli called the soft signal a ‘grey area’ that needs to be addressed.

“One more factor that needs to be considered is how a fielding team responds to a dismissal that’s claimed. It’s also about somewhere defining soft signals which is again, you have to question what the spirit of the game is and what those guidelines are.

If things like that happen with the Indian cricket team overseas then you are talking about a totally different conversation of the spirit of the game and so on and so forth. It is a serious, serious thing that needs to be considered because there’s a lot at stake in the future, the big tournaments and you don’t want some grey area factors in the game,” said Virat Kohli.

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“Umpire’s Call is Creating a Lot of Confusion” – Virat Kohli

Like many other cricketers and experts, the Indian skipper Virat is also not too fond of the ‘Umpire’s Call’ rule. It has been believed to be vague and sometimes unfair.

Here is Kohli’s argument about the same:

“Umpire’s call is creating a lot of confusion. If the ball is clipping the stumps, the bails are going to fall. From a basic cricket sense, there should be no doubts about that. It doesn’t matter how much of the ball hits the stumps,” Virat Kohli concluded in the press conference.