He may have been a vocal advocate of Decision Review System (DRS) but Indian captain Virat Kohli’s dismal success ratio indicates that calling for referrals is not exactly his calling card.
The five-match England series against India was the start of India using DRS — something they had strong reservations during Mahendra Singh Dhoni’s era.
But in the seven Test matches since DRS, India has got only 17 correct decisions out of the 55 referrals that they have taken. This comprises both batting and fielding statistics and the success percentage comes to a mere 30.9 percent.
While fielding, Kohli’s men have got only 10 out of 42 referrals right. Seven out of India’s 13 referrals were successful while batting.
The final call to appeal for DRS rests with the captain, but the close-in fielders, including the wicket-keeper, help the former in making the decision.
Wriddhiman Saha has been a fabulous keeper for India but he hasn’t always helped Kohli to make the right call for DRS. Of course, in Hyderabad, he, from the non-striker’s end, suggested Kohli to go for DRS when he was given out LBW on 180. It saved Kohli and helped him reach his world record fourth double hundred in four consecutive series.
But behind the stumps, Saha’s suggestions haven’t always been correct.
Former India wicket-keeper and cricket analyst, Deep Dasgupta says: “DRS should be strictly used for howlers.”
“And it is a tool to help umpires be as accurate as possible. For me an umpire’s call should only be challenged in case of leg before if a player is absolutely sanguine that he has had an inside edge onto the pads.”
“Every batsman knows if he has had an edge or not. So if anyone thinks that ball tracker will help him, he should get the concept right. As far as fielding team’s referrals are concerned, the wicket-keeper should be the DRS captain. He should be assertive enough if need be to tell the skipper that don’t go for it. The keeper’s conviction makes it easier for the skipper,” Dasgupta added.
In Pune, on a turner, India wasted all four reviews while fielding and got one correct out of the three while batting.
So it was one out of seven referrals. Only thrice has it got more than two referrals correct in a single Test.
Against England in Visakhapatnam, it had three out of nine referrals right and three out of 10 in Chennai. The Bangladesh match at Hyderabad was shade better with five out of 11.
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