Indian cricket and the DRS

Indian cricket and the DRS: This article is about India and its relationship with the DRS. It describes how India has suffered because of not using the technology. I also present a few stats how not using the DRS has given the Indian cricket team a few headaches. Finally I explain how advantageous it is if BCCI gives a green signal to DRS.

Let me start from India’s tour of South Africa in 2013. The second Test in Durban was a legend’s last international match. Jacque Kallis was all set to hang up his boots after this game. His brilliant knock meant that India had to bat extremely well to save the match. On day 5, Dale Steyn was bowling a fiery spell on a spiceless wicket. He bowled a big bouncer to Virat Kohli and Kohli was given caught behind even though the ball did not hit any part of the bat or the gloves. And after that, it was a Steyn show who bowled a superb spell.

If there was DRS, maybe Kohli would have batted out India to a draw considering the form (119.96, 47 in his previous 3 innings) he was in.

On India’s tour of New Zealand in 2014, during the first Test in Auckland, chasing 407 to win, Vijay was given out on a harsh decision. And at 270/4, Rahane again got out to a very-very poor decision. In the end, NZ won by 40 runs. Had DRS been there, who knows it would have been a totally different story?

Next, India’s tour of Australia in 2014. The clash in Adelaide is the one no one forgets. A perfect classic. Yes, a couple of decisions went in India’s favour. Also, at least 3 (maybe 4) went against them. Rahane and Dhawan were the casualties. The second Test in Brisbane too saw 3 umpiring blunders against India. Pujara, Rohit and Ashwin were the victims of poor decisions. One of the Australian legends (I guess Allan Border) mentioned in one of his articles that the series would have been tied 1-1 instead of Australia leading 2-0 had DRS been into play during the series.

Finally, the most recent Test in Galle. Atleast 4 decisions went against the Indians. 3 blunders in a space of 3 overs before lunch. If DRS had been used, India would have won by an innings, the Test they eventually conceded.

So, in the last 2 years itself, there have been 5 instances, rather 5 matches where DRS would have helped India over turn the final outcome, which was against them otherwise. In ICC world cup 2015 quarter finals, the Bangladesh fans became very upset and blamed the officials for India’s win and rightly so.

Just for 1 match, they were very upset. Dear BCCI for once, just once think about the Indian fans. From the past 2 years, we have been touring and coming home empty-handed. Yes we won the series in SL. Had DRS been used in all these series, we would have had a few away wins – something this young team needed.

In my opinion it is time to say yes to the DRS. It is not that India will start winning all matches if they use DRS, but the umpiring errors may reduce and we may see India win more often. Yes, DRS has its fair share of problems.

Ashes 2013 showed the weakness of DRS. Yes, it is not perfect. But it will reduce umpire blunders. No system can be perfect. But if the system can solve even a few errors, it is used because it is an improvisation which may not correct all errors but rectifies most of them. The same concept applies to DRS. So it is time to say yes to DRS. With the examples I showed that there were 5 Tests in the last 2 years where DRS would have helped India. Maybe 2-3 of them would have resulted in victories and something is definitely better than nothing.

BCCI are we in?

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