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India’s history with DRS
Ajinkya Rahane‘s plate is fairly full in Test cricket. At No. 5, he has often been the leader of an Indian counterattack. In the field, he is the first-choice at first slip for the spinners. Since the away series against West Indies in 2016, he has been vice-captain. One more responsibility has fallen on his shoulders ahead of the five Tests against England at home: helping India make optimum use of the Decision Review System, especially considering the hosts will be using it for the first time in a Test series since 2011, whereas England have rarely ever played without it.
“It is a completely new concept for all of us,” Rahane said. “We’ll have to wait and see about the DRS, but yes, we’ve been discussing about this from the last series and we had some plan. Wicketkeeper is obviously very important and as a slip fielder, you have that role to convey that message to the captain and also bowler.
“As a batsman, you are completely involved in the game, you have to see where the ball is going and you have to convey that message to your partner. You have to be sure all the time.”
When asked if DRS might be a key influence on the outcome of the series, Rahane said: “Yes, but that comes later on, We will spend some time explaining about DRS, how it works and how we should approach it. But the main focus is to play good cricket here. DRS obviously comes later on.
“We want to dominate this series, we’ve been playing some very good cricket in the last one, one-and-a-half years. So important to start well here in Rajkot and continue that momentum into the series.”
The BCCI had been, for a long time, reluctant to use DRS because it felt the system could not provide 100% accuracy. MS Dhoni had previously wondered if the system existed to reach the correct decision or if it was there to protect the on-field umpire’s call. With time, however, the technology has improved which in turn has helped change the team’s view. Since their visit to Bangladesh in 2015, Virat Kohli’s first tour as full-time Test captain, India have spoken about how they were discussing the implementation of DRS. Anil Kumble’s inputs must have helped – the current India coach is also chairman of the ICC’s cricket committee, which has been working towards eradicating the possibility of faults in the system.
In October, ICC general manager Geoff Allardice made a presentation to the BCCI about the improvements that have been made over the years. The HawkEye cameras that were used for ball-tracking in the 2011 World Cup in India recorded 50-75 frames per second. The ones in this series can record 340 frames per second. This means there is more data to calculate the predicted path of the ball – say, after it hits the pad in case of lbw decisions – and therefore less chance of error. Also with respect to the lbw protocol, the ICC has tweaked the rule to effectively make the stumps larger and as such there is the possibility that not-out calls made on the field have a high chance of being overturned by the third umpire.
The BCCI is yet to reach a decision on whether it will continue using DRS after the England series.
Alagappan Muthu is a sub-editor at ESPNcricinfo
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Source: ESPN Crickinfo