While the formidable Australian pace attack blew away the Indian top-order on the first morning of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy, KL Rahul looked determined to defy and emerge as the lone man standing. But his controversial dismissal put paid to all such hopes for Indian supporters. (Match Blog | Streaming | More Cricket News)
Rahul was left stunned, and kept shaking his head as he walked back to the pavilion. The dismissal raised a storm online, with most wondering whether the right call was made and were more replays needed to ascertain an edge.
This is how it all unfolded: Rahul was batting on a valiant 26 runs off 73 balls when he received a snorter from Mitchell Starc. The length ball was pitched in the off-stump channel and went on with the angle. The right-handed Rahul propped forward in defence and the ball appeared to pass really close to the bat before nestling into the gloves of Aussie keeper Alex Carey.
The on-field umpire Richard Kettleborough ruled it not out, but the hosts opted for a DRS. There were two noises as the ball went through to Carey, but the replays did not seem conclusive enough on whether it was bat on pad or the outside edge. There was a spike on Snicko but the replay was from side-on, due to which viewers and third umpire Richard Illingworth could not see if the bat was close to pad or not.
However, Illingworth seemed to go on the basis of the spike despite the lack of the front-on angle in combination with Snicko. Kettleborough's decision was overturned and a distraught Rahul headed back in disbelief. You can watch the slow-motion video replay of the controversial dismissal below.
Earlier, India won the toss and opting to bat first at Perth's Optus Stadium on Friday (November 22, 2024). The visitors handed out debuts to seamer Harshit Rana and pace-bowling all-rounder Nitish Kumar Reddy, leaving out the experienced Ravichandran Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja from the playing XI and playing Washington Sundar as the lone spinner instead.
Jasprit Bumrah is leading the Indian side in the absence of Rohit Sharma, who is set to join the squad on Sunday after the birth of his second child. Shubman Gill is out too, with a thumb injury.
