New Delhi [India], December 30 : Former India cricketer Surinder Khanna shared his views on India's disappointing performance in the fourth Border-Gavaskar Test in which Australia triumphed by 184 runs. Khanna lauded Yashasvi Jaiswal's batting while slamming the overall team effort.
"Only Jaiswal batted, rest were just coming and going," Khanna remarked, emphasizing Jaiswal's standout performance amidst the team's struggles.
On Jaiswal's controversial dismissal, he said the umpire first gave him not out. "The fielding side took a referral. In the referral, there is a snickometer, and as per Sunil Gavaskar, there is no deflection in it but if you go by the naked eye, there is a difference of 15 to 17 degrees. After hitting the gloves, the ball became slow, and wicketkeeper Alex Carey had to dive forward to take the catch. The square leg umpire was doubting whether the catch was taken cleanly or not."
The decision by the third umpire Sharfuddoula on Yashasvi Jaiswal's dismissal on the final day of the fourth Test of the BGT series has led to differing opinions.
The controversial moment occurred on the fifth ball of the 71st over when Jaiswal tried to pull the ball away from Australian captain Pat Cummins. Australia appealed for the decision, but the on-field umpired turned them down. Cummins decided to take the decision upstairs.
In the replay, the ball seemingly deflected on its way to wicketkeeper Alex Carey, but the snickometer didn't show any movement when the ball visibly appeared to be deflected off Jaiswal's gloves.
The third umpire felt the visual evidence was enough to deem Jaiswal out and asked the on-field umpire to overturn the decision.
Yashasvi scored 84 runs from 208 balls at a strike rate of 40.38. He slammed 8 fours during his time on the crease on Monday.
Khanna said technically, in snickometer, there was no deflection, but if you ask me, since I was a keeper, I will say it hit his gloves.
"Earlier, there were players like Gilchrist [Adam Gilchrist] who used to walk away, but nowadays, youngsters like Jaiswal do not walk away. He is saying he did not edge it, but he gloved it. Gavaskar is saying that the snickometer is not showing any deflection, then it's not out. He himself never walked away when he used to nick it. I asked him once that I have caught you 15 times behind the stumps, but you were only given out four times. What about the other 11 times? He used to laugh and say when I was not out, umpires did give me out a few times. So, that's why I never walked away...If we edged it, then we walked away because we feel sad when a bowler gets you out and the umpire doesn't give it, and he goes on to score a century, and the bowler gets kicked out of the team. When you get a batter of Gavaskar's status, he will get 4-5 more wickets. Similarly, if you get Jaiswal out, the rest are already out of form. So, one decision can play a major role but again, if you go by technicality, then Sunny bhai is correct, but what about that huge deflection? The next batter who came and got a bat-pad, even he did not agree and was saying that the ball is going up. I can see it clearly because I have been a wicketkeeper. The boy knew that the glove hit the ball," he said.
Khanna praised the Australian team for their performance.
"Australians played outstanding cricket. We had to bat out a day, about 77 overs or 80-odd overs, but we couldn't. The openers and top orders set the tone. When I started watching, it was the 30th over, and by the 30th over, it was 29 runs," he said.
"Australians were let off the hook when they were 60/6. They should have been dismissed for 80-85, but the catches that were dropped cost us. Three were dropped by Jaiswal only. Straightforward chances. You cannot drop such catches, and we paid badly for it," he added.