Follow UsJoe Root survived an extremely close LBW call against Mohammed Siraj on the third ball of the 37th over in the third innings of the Lord's Test. He was hit on the pads in front of the stumps while coming forward, as his attempted flick was futile.
India went up for the review as the height didn’t look to be an issue, and it was hitting off and middle stump. When the ball tracking showed up, it was all good for Indian until the impact on Root’s pads. However, the ball tracking showed that the ball moved further down the leg and was just marginally clipping the leg stump.
While it made people question the DRS method, what was more striking was that umpire Paul Reiffel had no interest in India’s appeal and had already made up his mind that it was not out. It was slightly surprising since it was always looking to hit the stumps; however, that wasn’t enough for him.
Earlier, the other on-field umpire, Saikat Sharfuddoula, had two LBW decisions turned against Akash Deep during India’s first innings in the same over.
All these missed/controversial decisions created a lot of furore on all social media platforms and the commentary box over the officiating in this Test, as the over-rates have been abysmal so far. Only 283.5 overs have been bowled until Tea on Day 4, when that number should have easily been around 320-330 at the very least, considering we have had no rain breaks in this Test.
While Washington Sundar cleaned up Root soon after, it did add to the bad news that umpiring has generated in this Test, and the match officials will certainly be under question once the Test match concludes.