What is 3-metre rule?: After being frustrated in the field for almost two days, India have given a solid reply in their first innings in the ongoing 4th Border-Gavaskar Trophy 2023 Test match, in Ahmedabad, with young opener Shubman Gill leading the way with a splendid century, his second in Test cricket, and his 5th international hundred in 2023.
Shubman Gill scored 128 runs off 235 balls with the help of 12 fours and a six before being dismissed by Nathan Lyon. India ended Day 3 at 289/3, with Virat Kohli having crossed his half-century.
During his bright innings, Shubman Gill rarely gave a sniff to the Aussie bowlers and fielders.
At one time, though, early on the morning of Day 3, in the 18th over, Australia thought they had dismissed Gill lbw by Lyon.
Shubman Gill stepped out a long way down the pitch to play a defensive shot to Lyon. The ball hit him on his pads and the Australians went up in appeal in unison. The umpire denied it, and Lyon and Steve Smith challenged the call with the help of DRS.
On ball-tracking it showed that the impact of the ball with Shubman Gill’s pad was over 3 metres from the stumps. Hence, the on-field decision of not out stayed and whether the ball was hitting the stumps didn’t matter. Here, the impact was also outside off-stump.
Shubman Gill’s century has helped India reduce the trail
However, even had the impact been inside the line, if Gill was over 3 metres away from the stumps, which he was, then, it would have been ruled not out. The 3-metre rule goes with the Umpire’s call.
The rule is in place because of questions about the ability of ball-tracking to project a correct path for an lbw appeal if the point of impact with the pad is more than 3 metres away from the stumps, and also to respect for the opinion of the umpire that a batsman is too far down the pitch for him to confidently rule in favour of the bowler.
So basically, if a batter is given not out on the field after an lbw appeal and the decision is reviewed, and if the distance between the batter and the stumps at the point of impact is 3 metres or more, then the decision will be with the on-field umpire, regardless of whether the ball is ‘hitting’ the stumps.
What is the 3-metre rule in LBW?
“When a not out decision is being reviewed, where the evidence shows that the ball was hitting, the point of first interception was in line, and the ball pitched in line or outside off, but that the point of first interception was 300cm or more from the stumps, the on-field decision shall stand (that is, not out),” said the rule.
Hence, Shubman Gill was given not out.
