IND vs ENG: England frustrated with some umpiring decisions - Zak Crawley

Crawley says England was left frustrated after some '50-50 situations' didn't go its way during the first day's play of the day-night Test in Ahmedabad.

Frustrating day: England's players react after looking at the big screen during the first day's play in Ahmedabad on Wednesday. - BCCI

England was left frustrated with some some umpiring decisions on the opening day of the third Test against India, opener Zak Crawley said in a virtual press conference at the end of the day’s play.

The television umpire overturned the on-field umpire’s ‘out’ verdict of opener Shubman Gill and Rohit Sharma was given not-out after a stumping appeal off the bowling of Jack Leach towards the business end of Day One.

IND v ENG, 3rd TEST, DAY 1 - AS IT HAPPENED

“It’s very frustrating. We're behind the game and we wanted those little 50-50 situations to go our way. That’s the way it goes sometimes. It’s certainly not our day. It does not help our chances,” Crawley said.

“When we batted, Jack had one where it didn’t quite carry and it seemed like they looked at it from five or six different angles. When we were fielding it seemed like they looked at it from one angle. That’s where the frustrations lie,” he added.

“I can’t say whether they were out or not-out, but I think the frustrations lie with not checking more thoroughly.”

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Asked about captain Joe Root’s conversations with the umpires Nitin Menon and Anil Chaudhary after the reviews, he said, “I would like to answer but I’ll leave that to the captain and senior players. As a young player I’ll keep my nose out of that situation, that’s for Joe, I think.”

Root chose to bat after winning the toss but his team succumbed to India’s spinners, collapsing to 112 all out inside two sessions. Left-arm spinner Axar Patel returned with figures of 6 for 38, for his second five-for in his second Test.

India ended the day on 99 for 3, trailing by just 13 runs, with opener Rohit Sharma unbeaten on 57.

‘Never easy against spinners’

England’s batting centred around the tall and elegant opener Crawley, who was returning after missing the first two Tests with a wrist injury. “It was easy to bat against the seamers, never easy to bat against spinners in these conditions. We should have got a few runs. if 200 would have been a nice and competitive score,” the 23-year-old, who made 53 off 84 balls, said.

Asked whether England erred in bringing in only one frontline spin bowler in Leach, he said: “We have very strong seamers and back them on any surface. It is above my pay grade, for sure, but I think that’s the way we were looking at it. If we had got a few more runs it might have helped our bowlers out a lot more. At the moment we are probably behind the game but there is plenty of time to fight back with our bowling line-up.”

Crawley was also disappointed that he could not convert his fifty into a big score.

“It is always nice to score a fifty in a Test match but you want to kick on and score more. For my first Test back, it was nice to get some runs. I think it is easier to bat during the day (in day-night Tests) but it is different over here to what it is in England,” he said.