Mark Butcher has branded the decision to allow Harshit Rana as a concussion replacement for Shivam Dube during the fourth India v England T20I, as "wildly wrong", following India's 4-1 win in the series.
After England’s 15-run defeat in the game in Pune, controversy remained around allowing Rana as a substitute. Dube was hit on the head at the end of his batting innings, in which he scored 53 off 34 balls, and was subsequently unable to field. Rana came into the XI, and bowled a 3-33 spell, taking the wickets of Liam Livingstone, Jacob Bethell and Jamie Overton as England were bowled out for 166.
The concussion sub rule stipulates, "The ICC match referee should ordinarily approve a concussion replacement request if the replacement is a like-for-like player whose inclusion will not excessively advantage his or her team for the remainder of the match."
England’s captain Jos Buttler questioned India’s claim it was a like-for-like change after the match. He said: “I think either Shivam Dube put on 25mph with the ball or Harshit Rana has improved a lot with his batting.”
Speaking on the Wisden Cricket Weekly podcast, Butcher said: “Well it was wrong wasn’t it, I understand why there are concussion protocols because you now have to remove players if there’s a suspicion they might have it, so under those circumstances it’s not the same as any other injury on the ground where you could be pulling a fast one.
“However the stipulations are clear it has to be a like for like replacement and they were not. It’s a shame that it overshadowed some terrific performances, but it did change the game. England were in for a shout of staying in the series up until that point.
"The rule has been on the scene for quite a significant amount of time and I don’t remember there being quite such a controversy. Of course when it happens in a T20 game, the facets that you have picked in your 11 tend to have very specific roles so they’re incredibly important. This one was wildly wrong and shouldn’t have happened.”
Although the controversy remained as a topic of conversation for the rest of the series, Butcher highly praised the ‘gladiatorial’ batting of India. Abhishek Sharma scored a 54-ball 135 in the final T20I, as India won the match by 150 runs and sealed the series.
“It was absolutely phenomenal batting," said Butcher. "I don’t think people quite understand not only the skill and the hand eye coordination, but the courage involved in going that hard at people who were going that hard at you with that sort of pace.
“I would have sat and watched that anytime, it was reminiscent of Viv taking on Hogg and Pasco on lively ones at the WACA with no helmets, it was that gladiatorial, the faster you bowl it at me the further I’m going to try and hit it. It was ‘the’ advert for T20 cricket.”
England will play three ODIs in India ahead of the Champions Trophy. In the opening ODI in Nagpur, India bowled England out for 248, with Rana again taking three wickets.
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