Sunil Gavaskar's Fiery On-Air "Umpire's Call" Rant Amid Ben Stokes-DRS Row

Former India captain Sunil Gavaskar has suggested that Test matches would finish in two-and-half days if the umpire’s call is scrapped off. Gavaskar’s comments came after England captain Ben Stokes, following the 434-run defeat in the third Test, had called to get rid off the umpire’s call. The all-rounder expressed his frustration with the LBW of Zak Crawley in the second innings of the 3rd Test in Rajkot, calling for more consistency in terms of decision making with the umpire’s call.

“Yeah, just about Zak’s DRS. He was just giving us some information around how it was judged to be given out when the balls did not hit the stumps on the DRS. The ball did not hit the stumps on replay. It was apparently that numbers said that it hit the stump, but the image was wrong. So I don’t really understand what’s going on there,” Stokes had said after the conclusion of the match.

However, Gavaskar took a swipe at Stokes and the other critics of the umpire’s call rule.

On the opening day of the ongoing fourth Test, Gavaskar pointed out the usefulness of the umpire’s call. The legendary batter pointed out the incident involving England opener Ben Duckett, who was given not out, thanks to umpire’s call, with the ball clipping the stumps.

Duckett survived a close DRS call after umpire Kumar Dharmasena gave him not out for an LBW appeal by India. The replays showed that the ball was just clipping the off-stump.

“Have a look at this. This is the umpire’s call. All those who are saying the umpire’s call should be done away with, on replay (on this instance), the ball was hitting the stumps, which meant, Duckett ‘good bye’. In case, the umpire’s call is done away with and the ball is hitting the stumps, it will be given out. This is Test cricket, most matches will finish in 2-and-half-days,” Gavaskar said on commentary.