Nine for none, but skipper to soldier on with referred pain management
Australia captain Tim Paine has played down the significance of his team's poor use of the decision review system despite the glaring discrepancy between his success rate and that of his opposing number Joe Root.
The Australians have reviewed their DRS protocols but do not believe it is a major issue despite paying a heavy price for a lapse of judgment in the final moments of their loss at Headingley.
The need to use DRS more prudently is increased this week by the appointments of Kumar Dharmasena and Marais Erasmus, who have vastly superior referral numbers to Headingley pair Joel Wilson and Chris Gaffaney.
Since the system was introduced in November 2009, Dharmasena ranks eighth of 29 with 75.74 per cent of his referred decisions upheld while Erasmus is 14th with 73.3 per cent, according to BBC Test Match Special statistician Andrew Samson. The pair are well ahead of Gaffaney (24th, 67.83 per cent) and Wilson (27th, 61.53 per cent).
Paine has missed on all nine of his challenges this series while Root has been successful on 40 per cent of occasions.
As reported in the Herald last week, Paine is the second worst referrer of captains with more than 30 reviews while Root is the best.
Australia's process involves a consultation between the wicketkeeper and bowler with the fielder at point to advise on height for lbw appeals.
"The DRS isn’t a huge thing for us. We want to talk about the way we are playing, not the way we are reviewing a decision," Paine said. "Certainly we want to get better at it, we are going to communicate that better amongst ourselves.
"But you go with what you think you see, and we are going to get that wrong. What we can control is attitude, field placings, where we bowl to certain people. We are going to concentrate on what we can control, not a DRS or an umpiring decision."
Root said it was important to take emotion out of the process and to use the system for its intended purpose of overturning glaringly poor decisions instead of hoping.
"There has to be an element of honesty and you have to trust that they’re making that decision which is best going to help England win a Test match, not to try and hopefully get a wicket or buy a wicket," Root said. "It's either out or it's not. It's not going to change by just hoping it's going to go on and clip the stumps.
"Stripping it back and understanding it's there for a mistake rather than to try and steal a wicket."