Ben Stokes wants DRS rule changed after India blow Bazball away with 434-run hammering: 'We were at wrong end 3 times'

Rajkot: England captain Ben Stokes during the 3rd Test against India

England captain Ben Stokes has urged for a reevaluation of the Decision Review System (DRS) following a contentious lbw decision during the side’s defeat in the third Test against India in Rajkot. Zak Crawley, the batter in question, contested Kumar Dharamasena’s decision to dismiss him lbw to Jasprit Bumrah, opting for a review. However, despite the projected path suggesting the ball would miss the top of leg-stump, Crawley was left frustrated as the decision stood.

This wasn’t the first time Crawley found himself on the wrong end of a tight DRS call, having experienced a similar situation in the previous Test. Stokes, alongside head coach Brendon McCullum, sought clarification from match referee Jeff Crowe after the match, expressing discontent with the decision.

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Stokes revealed that while there was an acknowledgement of an error in the produced image, Hawk-Eye confirmed that the underlying calculations supported the on-field decision.

“We just wanted some clarity around Zak’s DRS when the images came back,” Stokes told TalkSPORT.

“The ball is quite clearly missing the stump on the replay. So when it gets given umpire’s call, and the ball’s not actually hitting the stumps, we were a bit bemused. So, we just wanted some clarity from the Hawk-Eye guys.

“It came back saying the numbers, or whatever it is that is, it was saying that it was hitting the stumps but it was the projection that was wrong. I don’t know what that means. Something’s gone wrong, so, yeah. It’s not me blaming that on what’s happened here, like I didn’t last week. It’s just… what’s going on?”

England faced a colossal 434-run loss in the Test in Rajkot, and Stokes stated he didn’t want to pin DRS calls as the major reason for the side’s defeat. However, he stated that the umpire’s call should be scrapped altogether.

“We’ve been on the wrong end of three umpire’s calls this game and that is part of DRS. You’re either on the right side or the wrong side. Unfortunately, we’ve been on the wrong side. I’m not saying and never will say that’s the reason why we’ve lost this game, because 500 is a lot of runs.

“It is not something you pin down to result of the game. Sometimes, when you are on the wrong end of those decisions, it hurts, but that is part of the game. You want them to go your way, sometimes they do, sometimes they don’t.

“You just want a level playing field. The umpires have an incredibly hard job as it is, especially in India when the ball is spinning. My personal opinion is if the ball is hitting the stumps, it is hitting the stumps. They should take away ‘umpire’s call’ if I’m being perfectly honest. I don’t want to get too much into it because it sounds like we are moaning and saying that is why we lost the Test match.”

The 434-run loss is England’s biggest defeat (by the margin of runs) since Ben Stokes took over as the side’s Test captain. The visitors folded inside merely two sessions on Day 4, scoring only 122 in the 557-run chase after India’s batting order, led by young guns Yashasvi Jaiswal, Sarfaraz Khan, and Shubman Gill, wrecked havoc on the visitors.

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