The conflict revolving around concussion substitute rules in cricket has been raging for the last 12 hours or so after the fourth T20I between India and England in Pune. The match has been completely overshadowed by the match referee’s approval of Harshit Rana as the concussion substitute for Shivam Dube considering India’s win by 15 runs coming back from a score of 12-3.
Dube, who was batting beautifully with the half-century, was hit on the head by a bouncer during the last over of the innings. He experienced a delayed concussion and did not come out in the field for the second innings. To everyone’s surprise, Rana made his T20I debut, having been appointed a concussion substitute, and took 3 wickets which were critical to India’s victory.
The question that arises here is: how is Rana truly a like-for-like replacement for Dube? Is it true that Dube would have bowled anywhere near his full quota of four overs? Certainly not, and England skipper Jos Buttler expressed his frustration in the post-match press conference with that.”
“But I completely disagree; when the match referee Javagal Srinath allowed it, there was nothing we could do about it.”
Everybody was angered by the decision, and Kevin Pietersen said, “I am not sure he is like for like. Jos Buttler was not happy with the replacement before he got out. He was irate after he got out, walked straight to the dugout, and said something to the coach, who agreed with him that it was not like for like.”
Another former cricketer from England who shared this frustration was Vaughan about having Dube substituted during the game. Dube had bowled in 23 innings of his 34-match T20I career and has bowled a full quota of four overs only on two occasions. “How can an out-&-out bowler replace a batter who bowls part-time?” he says on X.
Download the CricInformer app
Take CricInformer with you. Get our app for cricket news and updates on your phone.