India vs England 2021: “DRS was like VAR today” – Jack Leach speaks about third-umpire’s calls on day 1
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Jack Leach
England spinner Jack Leach opened up about the third umpire calls that went against England on day 1 of the second Test against India and compared it to the VAR (Video Assistant Referee) used in football matches. Two contentious calls were made which led to centurion Rohit Sharma and half-centurion Ajinkya Rahane surviving. Although the two didn’t last long after the umpiring blunders, it didn’t take away the fact that at least one of the calls was straight-up wrong.
The first decision was with regard to a stumping where the benefit of doubt was given in favor of Rohit Sharma when his foot was on the line. The second was the more obvious blunder as the umpire missed out on checking for caught behind during a review and chose only to check for LBW. The replays later showed that the ball had struck the glove and popped up meaning it would have been out. The review was then given back to England.
‘It is what is is’ – Jack Leach reacts to umpiring decisions
Jack Leach addressed the press after the day’s play about the umpiring decisions and said, “We were trying to get the third umpire to roll it through, they were checking LBW, we knew that would have been not out, we were just trying to get them looking at what happened after the ball hit his pad. It is a bit like VAR today, still controversial, it is what it is.
They said they were checking it, then the LBW picture came up, we were saying no, no. We wanted to check them the other one. I got the impression that they hadn’t checked it (the angle we wanted the umpires to check). There is nothing I can do about it, at that time, I was angry but to get Rahane’s wicket in the next over, made a things little easier,” added Leach.
Speaking about the Indian batters, “As you saw with Rohit Sharma and Ajinkya Rahane, once you get a partnership going, it can get a little bit easier, we have to hope that we can do the same when we come to bat,” said Leach.
Finally addressing the pitch and his performance, “Compared to the first wicket, we played on, I would say that the pitch is turning a bit more, the wicket seems a little bit drier and it is spinning. Rohit played a serious knock, he is obviously a world-class player, to see how he went about it, he batted well. I thought I bowled well today, I will reflect on my performance in the evening. I tried to be patient as much as I can. This is the best I have bowled, it was all based around being patient and allowing the pitch to do what it was doing. That was my plan,” he added.
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