Chennai (Tamil Nadu) [India], February 14 (ANI): England assistant batting coach Graham Thorpe on Sunday said that the side has to accept the on-field umpire’s decision and trust the technology which is in place.
His comments came after England skipper Joe Root was seemed unhappy with the on-field umpire’s decision.
In the final session of day two, Jack Leach caught Rohit Sharma in front of the wickets but the batsman was not playing the shot and the on-field umpire called it not out. Root took the DRS but the on-field felt that Rohit was playing a shot and as a result, England lost the review as the ball made an impact outside the off stump.
Root took the review thinking Rohit had offered no shot, but when the on-field umpire Virender Sharma conveyed to him that a shot was offered, his shoulders went down.
Third umpire Anil Chaudhary was in no position to overturn the decision as the call of shot played or not relies completely with the on-field umpire and the third umpire has to give a final verdict based on that.
“We have to accept the decision which are made on the field and trust the technology. That’s really all I can say on it. I think umpires make that decision, he has to decide and we have to accept it,” Thorpe said in the virtual press conference on Sunday.
When asked about should ICC appoint a specialist umpire to look at those decisions Thorpe replied, “Quite possibly something which could be looked at.”
At stumps on day 2, India’s score read as 54/1, with Rohit Sharma (25*) and Cheteshwar Pujara (7*) on the field. The hosts currently enjoy a 249-run lead over England and will look to add many more runs to give themselves the best chance of winning the match.
England were bundled out for 134 and the coach feels that it was due to the challenges that pitch offers.
“Yup, it is incredibly challenging on that surface for us on day two. They are obviously a very skilled spin attack on their own condition and it was a very good toss to win,” Thorpe said.
“There are some balls on the pitch which you might not be able to do much about but we talked out trying to have a plan being clear in the air and how can you attack and how you can rotate the strike and how you can defend. The guys have plans but they did not happen today for us. There were some good deliveries, some unfortunate dismissals as well and good catches from India. Ben Foakes played really well. But we lost early wickets in the phase and that really set us back today,” he added.
Thorpe further admitted that visitors have some inexperienced players in their squad who are playing in India for the first time.
“It is a very challenging surface. It is obviously turning early in the game and it was a very good toss to win on day one. We need something very very special to happen tomorrow for us, something amazing with the bat. We knew we gonna have some tough days. We got some players in our team who are touring this part of the world for the first time against the very strong Indian side. Here, we know that we have to stand up and keep learning as well,” Thorpe said. (ANI)
