Steve Harmison believes ‘loads went improper’ with DRS for Joe Root’s dismissal, as yet more umpiring drama struck England’s series with India.
Root was on 11 when he was struck on the pad by Ravichandran Ashwin and given not out on the sphere. Ashwin convinced his captain Rohit Sharma to review the choice, with ball-tracking showing that the ball pitched in keeping with the stumps by the slightest of margins.
With ball tracking showing the ball to pitch in line after which predicting it could go on to hit the stumps, a disbelieving Root was forced to walk-off with an enthralling fourth Test match left within the balance.
“It didn’t look right,” said former England fast-bowler Harmison on talkSPORT 2’s live and exclusive coverage. “For me, the angle that it’s gone with, for it to hit the stumps you’d have said it’d hit middle-and-off, not leg-stump.
“I’m still not convinced it’s pitched in line mind, there’s loads gone improper for me.”
“From the naked eye, it just didn’t look right. From where the technology said the ball hit the stumps. From the angle Ashwin is bowling at I just don’t see how the ball can hit the stumps from that time from where it’s pitched.
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“I’m a technology man, I believe there’s more pros than cons. It just didn’t look right for whatever reason.”
The Guardian’s Ali Martin dug out the foundations on DRS regarding LBW decisions that pitch outside leg, which showed the choice was correct.
He wrote on X: “The road of the stumps runs from the skin of the stump. The *centre* of the ball must land inside this (when issue is pitching outside leg). There isn’t a umpire’s call. It was as tight as they arrive. Nevertheless it was out.”
England have benefitted from various marginal umpiring decisions this Test, with 4 ‘umpire’s call’ LBW decisions during India’s innings entering into their favour.
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It’s the third Test in succession that DRS has dominated debate, after England captain Ben Stokes called for the removal of the ‘umpires call’ decision-making process after England’s defeat in Rajkot and Zak Crawley’s dismissal was questioned at Vizag.
“You simply desire a level playing field,” Stokes told TalkSPORT. “The umpires have an incredibly hard job because it is, especially in India when the ball is spinning.
“My personal opinion is that if the ball is hitting the stumps, it’s hitting the stumps. They need to take away umpire’s call, if I’m being perfectly honest.”
In reply to Stokes’ criticism following Crawley’s dismissal in Vizag, the inventor of Hawk-Eye Paul Hawkins said to the Sunday Times that there “isn’t even a one percent change of it being improper.”
“For each DRS [incident], we do screen-grabs which show every thing the [Hawk-Eye] operator shows. That is automatic, we will’t manipulate it, and that immediately goes to the ICC [the game’s governing body] as a part of the standard control process.”
