Team India captain Virat Kohli gave his opinion on the controversial wicket of Suryakumar Yadav’s wicket in the fourth T20I between India and England at Narendra Modi Stadium, Ahemdabad. Suryakumar played a sublime knock of 57 runs before getting dismissed in an unfortunate fashion. Surya skied the ball in 14th over and Dawid Malan took a catch at fine leg.
The third umpire took his time and checked all angles, but there was nothing conclusive to prove Dawid Malan had not taken it cleanly – but because the soft signal was out – it remained that way as Suryakumar had to depart.
After the match, Kohli talked about the importance of soft-signals from the umpire.
“There was an instance during the Test series when I was next to Jinks and he clearly caught the ball but he wasn’t sure so we went upstairs. If it is a half and half effort and the fielder is in doubt, there is no way the umpire from square leg can see it clearly. The soft signal becomes that important and it becomes tricky,” Kohli said in the post-match presentation.
Kohli also emphasized on the debate of the ‘I don’t know’ call from the on-field umpires and compared it to the umpire’s call decision in DRS.
“I don’t know why there can’t be an ‘I don’t know’ call with the umpires as well. It is similar to umpire’s call as well. These are decisions that can change the course of the game, especially in these big games. We were on the receiving side today, and tomorrow it could be some other team. You want these ironed out and keep the game really simple and linear. It isn’t ideal in high-pressure games and have a lot of clarity on the field,” Kohli added.
However, India won the game by 8 runs to level the series 2-2. The Indian captain was happy with his team’s overall performance despite the dew factor.
“Proper game against a top side in this format. The wicket was better than any other game and the dew factor was massive, bigger than any other game as well. The wicket allowed us to get to that total. There were a few instances in the middle which were strange, but having said that 180+ was what we were looking at,” he said.
Kohli heaped huge praise on Surykumar for his fine knock and Shardul Thakur for his brilliant bowling in the death overs.
“Special mention to Surya, he batted outstandingly well in his first game. Similar to Ishan. They are quite fearless having played in the IPL. We don’t have any T20Is after this so I want the guys to be confident and come out of it very strongly. With the ball we were quite clinical. Shardul turned it around but our powerplay start kept England in check and under pressure,” Kohli added.