Former cricketers find Joe Root's dismissal at Trent Bridge as legitimate

England had a rough outing on the second day of the third Test at Trent Bridge in Nottingham. They were shot out for 161 runs courtesy of Hardik Pandya’s maiden five-wicket haul in international cricket. After Alastair Cook and Keaton Jennings’ 54-run stand, the Brits capitulated alarmingly. In the meantime, there was a controversy surrounding Joe Root’s dismissal.

Pandya was introduced in the 25th over and the decision immediately bore fruits as the medium pacer picked up the English captain in his very first delivery. The ball bounced off a length and hit the splice of the bat, safely into the hands of KL Rahul in the slip cordon. However, at first glance, the ball seemed to have hit the turf before nestling into palms of the slip fielder.

A lot of controversy over the catch

The third umpire had a tough time and he had a long look, but eventually reckoned that the catch was clean. Root wasn’t happy with the dismissal and showed his dissent after being given out. Meanwhile, former cricketers like Mark Butcher, Kumar Sangakkara, and Michael Vaughan mentioned that the third umpire made the appropriate decision.

Butcher tweeted about the same and wrote, “(The) ball travels horizontally, not vertically towards an object that is curved, not flat. Therefore the ball can and did in this case, bounce off the fingers into the palms. Out!”

“A lot of controversy over the catch – I thought he was caught. I think it bounces off the finger.” Vaughan was quoted as saying by the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC).

Sangakkara also agreed with the third umpire on the decision during his commentary for Sky Sports. He said, “It does look out … it looked as if the fingers were underneath the ball. You do need conclusive evidence to overturn any signal from the on-field umpires.”

The Three Lions are currently trailing by a mammoth 292 runs and need some herculean efforts to turn their fortunes around with three days remaining in the encounter.

[interaction id=”5b796197286232d9a1f41696″]

For more news and developments, stay tuned on CricTracker.com.