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Rohit Sharma apologises to baffled Siraj after decision to agree with Pant on DRS backfires: 'Don't show him the replay'

Sep 20, 2024 02:38 PM IST

Rohit Sharma and Rishabh Pant got it wrong as the DRS proved Mohammed Siraj was right all along.

There was no shortage of action on Day 2 of the first Test between India and Bangladesh in Chennai. India were bowled out for 376, losing their last four wickets for 27 runs, Hasan Mahmud picked up a consecutive five-wicket-haul, Taskin Ahmed chipped in with three wickets as well, and Akash Deep left Bangladesh struggling at 26/3 at lunch. 120 minutes, 7 wickets, and the possibility of another three-day Test finish. It won’t be an exaggeration to say that there's only one team dictating terms in this Test match and it’s not Bangladesh.

It would have been three reds had India taken the review(Screengrab)
It would have been three reds had India taken the review(Screengrab)

In the second innings thus far, everything went India's way – from their pacers looking threatening to both Akash and Jasprit Bumrah getting into the wicket column quickly. The one little blemish, if one has to pinpoint, for India, however, was a DRS error committed by captain Rohit Sharma against Bangladesh opener Zakir Hasan. Bowling the fourth over, Mohammed Siraj had the left-hander stone dead, but after the on-field umpire turned down the appeal, Rohit ignored Siraj's persistence to go for the review and instead agreed with what wicketkeeper Rishabh Pant had to say.

The ball rapped Hasan on the pads, beaten by pace, as he was looking to work it on the leg-side. "Upar hai? Nahi? Nikal raha hai," Rohit was caught hearing on the stump mic, meaning "Is it going above? No? Drifting down leg." Rohit took Pant's advice, but as the replay soon showed, Pant's assessment was wrong. Three reds it was. Not that the decision hurt India since Akash soon castled Hasan for 4, but bowling with the intensity that he was, Siraj, like any pacer, would have loved to be among the wickets.

Watch the video below:

Ravi Shastri sums up it up

No soon did the replay appear on the giant screen, Siraj looked all perplexed, as Rohit soon sported a sheepish smile on his face and waved his arms as Siraj as a way to apologise, with Pant emulating the gesture. Siraj, however, was clearly baffled. A little more courage and the right-arm quick could have been rewarded for bowling with pace, accuracy and intensity in the hot and sapping Chennai weather.

Pant was standing significantly outside off stump, so although the wicketkeeper usually is in a good position to pass on his wisdom to the captain, there's no way Pant could have gotten it 100 percent right. The confusion was aptly summed up by Ravi Shastri on air, who made it clear it'll benefit the team if India can find a way to make Siraj escape watching the video. "Don't show Siraj the replay. He won't be a happy chappy that's for sure," the former India coach said in his evergreen booming voice.

"If you see from where Siraj has delivered, it's very close to the stumps. So I think it's at least a 50-50 call. He gets close to the stumps at the time of delivery so the chances of leg before are much more when he bowls from angle as compared to center of the crease or wide of the crease. You really need to get the ball to swing in from the off stump."

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