Its a clear sign of bad blood between India and England in the ongoing series
England captain Jos Buttler made no attempts to hide his frustration over India’s concussion substitution controversy from the fourth T20I in Pune, as he arrived for the toss in the fifth T20I in Mumbai.
When asked by broadcaster Ravi Shastri about England’s changes for the match, Buttler said:
“Just one change in the playing XI. Mark Wood comes in. And our four impact subs are Rehan Ahmed, Saqib Mahmood, Jamie Smith and Gus Atkinson.”
Buttler was sarcastically referring to the Indian Premier League’s Impact Player substitution while playing a T20I because of what transpired in the previous match which they lost by 15 runs.
India had replaced fast-bowling allrounder Shivam Dube with full-fledged pacer Harshit Rana as a concussion substitution in the fourth T20I after Dube was hit on the helmet by a Jamie Overton bouncer.
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It was a double blow for England as Dube had scored 53 off 34 balls while Rana claimed 3-33 on his T20I debut. This clearly incensed a usually-reserved Buttler as he spoke his mind in the post-match press conference.
“It is not a like-for-like replacement. We don’t agree with that. Either Shivam Dube has put on about 25mph with the ball or Harshit has really improved his batting. It’s part of the game and we really should have gone on to win the match, but we disagree with the decision,” Buttler said.
India, meanwhile, gave a courteous response over the issue saying that it was up to the match referee – in this case Javagal Srinath – to approve the player they have put forth for substitution.
“Shivam came off the field in the innings break with mild headache symptoms. We took a name forward to the match referee in terms of a suitable substitution, and from there it is up to the match referee to make the decision. When the decision was made, Harshit was having dinner. So we had to get him ready as quickly as possible to go on the field and bowl,” India bowling coach Morne Morkel said.
Even though Buttler had admitted that their loss in the match was not just because of Rana replacing Dube, his latest words are a clear sign of bad blood with either officials or the Indian team.
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