KL Rahul's controversial dismissal became the talk of the town on Friday as India reached 51/4 at lunch on the opening da of the first Test against Australia in the Border-Gavaskar Trophy (BGT) at the Optus Stadium in Perth. Opting to bat first, India were in deep trouble straightaway with Yashasvi Jaiswal and Devdutt Padikkal departing without troubling the scorers.
Virat Kohli was the third man to be dismissed for India as the former skipper lasted only 12 deliveries for his five. While all this was happening, Rahul displayed good technique and admirable temperament in the middle as he followed the basics of the game.
While Rahul played the ones that came on his body, the stylish right-hander left all other deliveries from length. The 30-year-old did play a couple of push drives while a few went past his bat.
With 10 minutes to go for lunch, Rahul found himself in the middle of a third umpiring goof-up. Mitchell Starc, back from his second spell, got the ball moving a shade away. The Australians appealed for a caught-behind as the on-field umpire remained unmoved.
Australian captain Pat Cummins went for the DRS immediately after a quick chat with his teammates. The TV replays showed there was a sound when the ball went past Rahul bat which hit the pad soon after.
Richard Illingworth, who is the third umpire for the Test match, didn't explore all the angles before signalling Rahul out. However, the decision didn't go well with the former Indian players who expressed their disbelief on social media.
Former Australian opener Matthew Hayden, who is doing commentary in the game explained what Illingworth missed while making the decision. Discussing the dismissal with co-commentator Sunil Gavaskar, Hayden pointed out what went wrong.
“Look here closely Sunny (Sunil Gavaskar). His (Rahul) bat and pad are not together at that point of time. As the ball passes, after in fact the ball passes the edge. Does snicko pick up the sound of the bat hitting the pad? We are assuming its the outside edge of the bat but it may not be the case,” explained Hayden.
Even former umpire Simon Taufel opined that the angles with which the dismissal were showed were misleading. “We saw with that side on shot there was a spike on RTS with the bat away from the pad, in other words the bottom of the bat hadn't reached the pad,” Taufel clarified on social media platform X.
“Therefore rolling that through in its natural course, you may have seen that second spike (on Snicko, to indicate bat hitting pad) come through, had it been rolled all the way through.” he added.
