“India missed a trick,” said former India captain Sunil Gavaskar after Ajinkya Rahane’s men decided not to use the DRS against Tom Latham in the morning session of Day 3 in the India-New Zealand first Test in Kanpur. Latham continued to enjoy a cordial relationship with DRS in this Test match. He was give out thrice – twice by Nitin Menon and once by Virender Sharma – by on-field umpires on Friday and in all three occasions, Latham straightaway opted for DRS and the decision had to be reversed. And on Saturday, when he was given not out on the field, India decided not to go for the DRS. Replays showed that he would have been out.
The incident took place in the 73rd over of the New Zealand innings when Ashwin got one to turn from a fuller length. Latham did not put a good stride forward and the turn meant, the ball evaded the left-hander’s bat to brush his front pad and then hit the back leg. There was a huge appeal from Ashwin and all the close-in fielders but the umpire turned it down. Surprisingly India did not opt for the review.
An over later, replays showed three reds – the ball was pitching in line, the impact was straight and it was hitting the stumps. Ashwin was seen kicking the turf in frustration while Rahane had a grimace on his face when big screens showed the replay.
Latham out LBW at 66, given not out, review not taken by India.
Are the matches going to get decided on the basis of a team’s judgment to take (or not to) DRS? pic.twitter.com/WzDoWrTQri— Bhupesh Juneja (@BhupeshJuneja1) November 27, 2021
Legendary India cricketer Sunil Gavaskar and former New Zealand pacer Simon Doull were in the commentary box when all this transpired.
“India missed a trick. They should have gone for the review. Even if it was umpire’s call, they would have retained the review,” Gavaskar said during commentary.
India had two reviews in their bank during that time. Due to home umpires being used because of travel restrictions in the post-Covid era, teams now get three reviews every innings instead of two.
New Zealand went into lunch at 197 for 2. The second new ball did the trick for India at the stroke of lunch as Umesh Yadav pitched one on line off-stump, which cut back enough to find Williamson’s pads just when he was showing signs of settling down having reached 18 off 64 balls.
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New Zealand scored 68 runs in that session and were 148 runs behind India’s first innings total of 345.
Opener Will Young (89 off 214 balls) missed out on what would have been his maiden Test century as Ravichandran Ashwin (28-7-57-1) gave the much-needed breakthrough.
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