The Indian skipper Virat Kohli opened up about the ongoing controversial ‘soft signal debate that began after Suryakumar Yadav’s dismissal in the 4th T20I match on Thursday.
For the unversed, in the 14th over of India’s innings, the dream knock of SKY came to an end with a controversial dismissal. SKY was batting on 57 off 31 when he played a lap shot off Sam Curran’s delivery towards the fine leg. However, the shot was stopped by Dawid Malan, who put in some great effort to grab the ball.
Third umpire while making that decision. #INDvENGt20 #suryakumar pic.twitter.com/JJp2NldcI8
— Virender Sehwag (@virendersehwag) March 18, 2021
After the on-field umpire gave the soft signal as “out”, the decision was referred to the third umpire, who after multiple checks decided to go with the on-field call. The decision of the 3rd umpire meant that SKY will have to walk back to the pavilion. However, one of the frames showed that the ball might have made contact with the ground. But Virender Sharma, the TV umpire, wasn’t fully convinced that the catch was clean. But since he didn’t have anything conclusive, the 3rd umpire wasn’t able to change the decision.
Ever since then, debate on ‘soft-signal’ has been going on and several cricketers and experts have given their opinion on the matter. The latest one to open up on the matter is none other than the Indian skipper, Virat Kohli.
In an interview, Virat said that the on-field umpire should have the option whether to give a soft signal to the third umpire in relation to judging if a catch has been taken cleanly or not. He said:
“There was an instance during the Test series when I was next to Jinks and he clearly caught the ball but he wasn’t sure so we went upstairs,”
“If it is a half and half effort and the fielder is in doubt, there is no way the umpire from square leg can see it clearly. The soft signal becomes that important and it becomes tricky. I don’t know why there can’t be an ‘I don’t know’ call with the umpires as well. It is similar to the umpire’s call as well.”
He added:
“These are decisions that can change the course of the game, especially in these big games. We were on the receiving side today, and tomorrow it could be some other team. You want these ironed out and keep the game really simple and linear. It isn’t ideal in high-pressure games and have a lot of clarity on the field,
