Mitchell Starc survived an lbw appeal in the Boxing Day Test between Australia and India courtesy of a marginal ‘umpire’s call’ ruling, but the decision has raised a furore over the DRS protocols.

With Australia struggling at 199-9 in the second innings having lost all of their specialist batsmen, Starc failed to read a Ravichandran Ashwin carrom ball and was struck on the pads. The appeal, however, was turned down by on-field umpire Paul Reiffel forcing Ajinkya Rahane to ask for a review.

Ball tracking showed that while the ball pitched and hit Starc’s pads in line, it returned umpire’s call on wickets with the ball clipping the bail between middle and leg stumps. The tracker showed almost 50 per cent of the ball hitting the stumps, which took a few Twitter users by surprise, including former cricketers, journalists and pundits.

https://twitter.com/SriramKuppuswa1/status/1343737713158221827?s=20

Though the decision didn’t extend Starc’s stay in the middle by much as his partner Josh Hazlewood was clean bowled by Ashwin an over and a run later, it has certainly started a debate which will take some time to subside.

Sachin Tendulkar is among those who have leant their voices to calls to abolish umpire’s call altogether, arguing that if the ball-tracking technology shows the ball hitting the stumps to any extent, a decision of ‘out’ should be returned. There were several close shouts to go against India in the Test, though there were notable calls to go against the hosts too.

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Mitchell StarcRavichandran AshwinAustralia v IndiaInternational CricketSeries Editorial