India were at the receiving end of at least five contentious umpiring decisions in the lost first two Tests against Australia, prompting skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni to say that the tourists are being more hard done.
But he continued to hold the view that having DRS would not help the side’s cause too much.
However, senior off-spinner Harbhajan Singh feels that it’s time that India accepted DRS in its current form as it would only help the team during close Test matches.
“I believe it’s time that we accepted the DRS as it will only benefit our cause. If you look, in both Test matches, India were very competitive but there were key moments when our boys got a raw deal,” Harbhajan told PTI today.
“I can recall four decisions. Shikhar’s (Dhawan) caught behind in the second innings of the first Test in Adelaide.
(Cheteshwar) Pujara’s caught behind in the first innings of second Test followed by Rohit (Sharma) and Ashwin’s decision in the second innings. Had DRS been there, all these decisions were sure to be overturned and we might have been in a winning position in both Test matches,” Harbhajan opined.
“Even if I take it for a fact that DRS is not foolproof and 100 percent accurate, from a personal point of view, even 90 percent accurate DRS can get you key decisions at key moments in your favour,” said Harbhajan, who has 400 plus wickets in Test cricket.
However Harbhajan’s one-time teammate and one of India’s finest batsman VVS Laxman is still not ready to warm up to DRS as he still believes that key issues like full-fledged accuracy of HotSpot or HawkEye still can’t be determined.
“Any technical foolproof system to provide accurate decisions is always welcome. I am not against DRS, but the system is still a long way from being foolproof,” Laxman is still not ready to accept DRS in its current form.
“I am not convinced about the HotSpot or the HawkEye, which projects the predictable path of the ball for the LBW decisions. As and when these two vital issues of the decision review process are set in order, we can seriously contemplate agreeing to the use of DRS,” Laxman added. .
PTI