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Michael Vaughan on Friday questioned Indian team management’s decision of picking Harshit Rana as a concussion substitute for batting all-rounder Shivam Dube in the fourth India-England T20I.
Iceland Cricket troll Michael Vaughan for crying foul. (Picture Credit: AFP, AP)
Iceland Cricket’s official X handle posted a tweet on Friday, January 31, to troll former England skipper Michael Vaughan after he questioned Indian team management for picking fast bowler Harshit Rana as a concussion substitute for all-rounder Shivam Dube. Dube, who scored a half-century (53) for the Suryakumar Yadav-led side in the fourth T20I of the ongoing five-match series played on Friday at MCA Stadium in Pune, was hit on the helmet by Jamie Overton in the last over of India’s innings. Dube was then replaced by Rana for the second half of the match as a concussion sub.
Many former greats of the game and experts questioned India’s decision to replace an all-rounder with a specialist bowler. Under the concussion sub rule, teams are allowed to make a like-for-like replacement.
Vaughan took to X to question the decision and tweeted, “How can an out & out bowler replace a batter who bowls part-time!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! #INDvsENG”. Iceland Cricket took note of the former England captain’s viral tweet and replied, “We didn’t need to check the score. We knew England must have lost.”
England’s white-ball captain Jos Buttler was also not pleased with the Indian team management’s decision on Friday, and while speaking to reporters during the post-match press conference, he said, “It’s not a like-for-like replacement. We don’t agree with that. Either Shivam Dube has put on about 25 mph with the ball or Harshit’s 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.”
India’s decision to use Rana as a concussion sub proved to be decisive in the match, as the Delhi-based pacer in his first-ever T20I match for India picked up three wickets for 33 runs in four overs. He opened his wicket account by getting Liam Livingstone caught behind by wicketkeeper Sanju Samson on the second ball of the 12th over of the run chase.
For his second wicket of the match, Rana dismissed Jacob Bethell. The right-handed batter could only manage to score 6 runs from nine balls before being caught by Suryakumar Yadav on the fifth ball of the 16th over.
On the last ball of his fourth over, Harshit clean bowled Overton to almost end England’s chances of winning the match against India and level the T20I series.
