England's captain has questioned the lbw dismissal of Zak Crawley in the second innings.
Ben Stokes has called for the Decision Review System (DRS) to abolish umpires' decisions after Zak Crawley's second-innings dismissal stunned England in their third Test defeat to India in Rajkot.
Crawley reviewed the lbw decision against Jasprit Bumrah in the ninth over but walked off angrily as he felt the projected trajectory showed the ball missing the top of the leg stump. Crawley has been on the receiving end of a marginal DRS call for the second time. In Visakhapatnam, he was adjudged leg before against Kuldeep Yadav following a review from Rohit Sharma. Stokes said at the time that the decision was "wrong".
After England's 434-run loss, the England captain was seen alongside head coach Brendon McCullum seeking clarification from match referee Jeff Crowe. At the end of the day's play, Stokes explained that he was informed that the mistake was in the image displayed, which indicated that the ball would miss the top of the leg stump. Hawk-Eye confirmed to Stokes that the calculations were accurate and that the ball would have hit the leg stump, justifying the on-field decision.
The dismissal of Ollie Pope in the first innings also left England reeling. He was initially given out not out to Mohammed Siraj. The decision was overturned as the impact on leg stump was deemed conclusive. The tourists were under the impression that the on-field decision was a foregone conclusion.
Stokes reiterated that he did not believe such decisions were to blame for England now going 2-1 down in the five-match series. He did, however, express his belief that the system needed to be changed, starting with the umpires' decisions.
Ben Stokes:
"We've been on the wrong end of three umpire's calls this game and that is part of DRS. You're either on the right side or the wrong side. Unfortunately, we've been on the wrong side. I'm not saying and never will say that's the reason why we've lost this game, because 500 is a lot of runs."
Following Stokes' comments about the accuracy of the DRS during the second Test, Paul Hawkins, the creator of Hawk-Eye's ball-tracking technology, defended the system and its processes.
Hawkins stated that there was not even a one per cent chance of the system being wrong. He also mentioned that for every DRS incident, screen-grabs are taken which show everything the Hawk-Eye operator sees. This process is automatic and cannot be manipulated. The results are immediately sent to the ICC, the governing body of the game, as part of the quality control process.