There was a hint of controversy in Mohammed Siraj’s dismissal of Dawid Malan on the second day of the third India-England Test match, with Rishabh Pant seemingly taking the catch with illegally taped gloves.
The wicketkeeper was told to remove some tape from his gloves, joining together his fourth and fifth fingers, before play started after tea, with Malan falling to a leg-side strangle on the last ball before the interval. Law 27.2.1 makes clear that webbing is only allowed between the index finger and thumb. “If, as permitted under 27.1, the wicketkeeper wears gloves, they shall have no webbing between the fingers except joining index finger and thumb, where webbing may be inserted as a means of support,” it states.
The Sky commentary team received clarification from the match officials over why Pant had been made to alter his gauntlets. “There’s lots in the laws of the game about the webbing, but we’re hearing from the third umpire, Richard Illingworth, that he wasn’t allowed and he’s not allowed to tape his gloves like that, so they’ve asked him to take that tape off,” Nasser Hussain said.
David Lloyd appeared to suggest the dismissal of Malan could be struck off, with a ball not bowled between his wicket and the umpires’ request for Pant to remove the tape from his gloves. “So it’s not retrospective then?” he asked. “You can’t say, well you’ve just taken a wicket, so…”
“I’m guessing he’s had those gloves taped up all the way through,” Hussain replied.
Pictures confirm Pant’s gloves were taped up before tea but not after. Law 28.1, concerning protective equipment for fielders, states: “protection for the hand or fingers may be worn only with the consent of the umpires.”
There is no punishment specified in the laws for if a keeper wears inappropriate gloves, so any overturning of the decision would have required India to withdraw their appeal. Pant is not the first to tape two of his fingers together, with MS Dhoni doing so regularly through his career.
[caption id=”attachment_216410″ align=”alignnone” width=”800″]
Pant (left) keeping without taped gloves after tea, Dhoni (right) keeping with taped gloves during the 2019 World Cup[/caption]
