The former Indian opener Wasim Jaffer, like everyone else, was also perplexed by the fact that the on-field LBW decision that the Indian captain Virat Kohli referred to the television umpire on the first day of the ongoing second test match between India and New Zealand was not overturned by the TV umpire.
To check if there was an inside edge before the ball hit the pad, the TV umpire used the ultra edge and the ultra edge showed the spike exactly at the time when the ball seemed to be in contact with both bat and pad. The TV umpire stated, while making his decision, that he didn’t have any evidence to be sure that the decision that was made on the field was not correct.
Wasim Jaffer thought the TV umpire should have used common sense
According to Jaffer, the TV umpire might have been well within his rights to say that the evidences he had at his disposal were not conclusive enough, but that was a scenario where common sense should have been used because given the position the batsman had gotten into and given the trajectory of the ball, it was not that hard to judge that the ball hit the pad only after the deflection off the inside edge.
Another questionable remark that the TV umpire made on air was that he asked the producer to freeze the footage at a time when the ball was in contact with both bat and pad, and he said since the ball came in contact with both bat and pad at the same time, he couldn’t overturn the on-field decision. But, the MCC rules says if there is a situation where the ball is hitting both bat and pad at the same time, it should be considered bat first by the umpire.
While all the Indian fans were angry by the eventual conclusion, Jaffer, who is a very cool minded person otherwise, seemed to be slightly annoyed as well, as he put out a tweet saying “common sense is not so common”.
That was bat first in my opinion. And I understand the 'conclusive evidence' part. But I think this was an instance where common sense should have prevailed. But as they say common sense is not so common. Feel for Virat Kohli. #Unlucky #INDvNZ
— Wasim Jaffer (@WasimJaffer14) December 3, 2021
