Virat Kohli Out or Not Out: Virat Kohli who returns to the Test match post unsuccessful ICC T20 WC 2021 campaign is expected to make a strong comeback in Test format.
Virat Kohli Out or Not Out
But everything turns upside down when he dismissed for duck in a controversial LBW. Ajaz Patel placed the ball in the line of the stump where Virat had a hit on the pads umpire Anil Chaudhary raised his finger followed by a huge appeal from the bowler.
After the umpire’s decision Indian skipper immediately sent it upstairs thinking that he had an inside edge before the ball hit his pads.
After taking a lot of time, the third umpire concluded that there was no conclusive evidence to suggest that the ball had hit the bat first. Ball tracking showed three reds, which meant Kohli had to take the long walk back for a duck but not before he had had a word with the on-field umpires.
The India captain was even seen hitting the boundary cushions before leaving the field.
Third umpire Virender Sharma took his time and after several replays he came to the conclusion that he didn’t have enough evidence to overturn the on-field umpire’s call.
“Ball and bat and pad appears to be together. I don’t have any conclusive evidence to overturn that,” he said.
The on-field umpire was asked to stay with his decision much to the disappointment of Kohli and the Indian fans.
Clearly see there was deviation. Ball hit bat first. Virat Kohli immediately take review. Third umpire doing such mistake. Nothing is going good for Virat Kohli. #IndvsNZtest #ViratKohli pic.twitter.com/P3Ugpa3rY3
— Arjit Gupta (@guptarjit) December 3, 2021
Sanjay Bangar Backs Virat Kohli
Speaking to Star Sports, Sanjay Bangar said he felt the ball had hit Kohli’s bat first and that the LBW decision was an error from the umpire.
“I certainly felt the ball hit the bat first. If you look at that deviation as to where the ball was going after the impact, clearly the ball hit the pad. There was wood on it. Otherwise, there was no chance the ball would have come back that much and hit the pad. Clearly, it was an error on part of the umpire,” Bangar said.
Bangar, who had worked with Kohli in Mumbai in the lead up to the 2dn Test, pointed out that slowing down the replay to find conclusive evidence sometimes doesn’t help.
“What happens when the 3rd umpire looks to make a decision like that, if he looks to slow it down further and further, then it becomes difficult. It’s rather a good thing for the umpire to see it in real-time.
That’s where you get the cue that there is obviously a deviation. Too much emphasis on slowing it down actually makes it confusing for the 3rd umpire in making the right decision,” he added.
Ajaz Patel picked up 4 wickets as he removed both Cheteshwar Pujara and Virat Kohli in the same over. It was the left-arm spinner, who was born in Mumbai, who broke the opening stand of 80 runs for India. He returned to end an 80-run stand between Mayank Agarwal and Shreyas Iyer by removing the latter for 18 in the post-Tea session.
At the end of day 1, India scored 221 runs for 4 wickets loss where Mayank holds the bat with 120 runs supported by Saha with 25 runs.
