Hyderabad: Indian skipper Virat Kohli on Monday gave his verdict on the controversial 'umpire's call' rule, saying that it is creating a lot of confusion. Kohli's statement came ahead of India's ODI tournament opener against Pune.
India are slated to play three-match ODI series against England in Pune and the first game of the tournament will be played on Tuesday.
When Kohli was quipped about the umpire's call during India's virtual press conference, the skipper said that if the ball is hitting the stumps, it should be out.
"Look, I have played in the time where there was no DRS. The umpire made the decision whether the batsman liked it or not, it stayed like that. Vice-versa, if the umpire gave it not out and it was out, it stayed like that," Kohli said.
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"Whether it was marginal or not, according to me, umpire's call right now is creating a lot of confusion. When you get bowled as a batsman, you do not expect the ball to hit more than 50 per cent into the stumps to consider yourself getting bowled," Kohli added.
"If the ball is shown clipping the stumps, basic cricket common sense, I do not think there should be any debates on that, if the ball is hitting the stumps, it should be out. Whether you like it or not, you should lose the review," Kohli further added.
"If it hits the stumps or missing the stumps, it should not matter how much the ball is clipping because it is creating a lot of confusion. One more factor that needs to be considered is how the fielding team responds to a dismissal that is claimed.
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"This is somewhere defining the soft signals as well. You have to question what the spirit of the game is and what those guidelines are because if things like that happen with the Indian cricket team overseas then you are talking about completely different conversation about spirit of the game.
"So look, it is a serious thing which needs to be considered because there is a lot at stake in bigger tournaments. You do not want any grey area hampering the game and it leaves with you no clarity," he signed off.
