The veteran Indian bowler is currently enjoying the Duleep Trophy 2024 in his country. However, Ashwin is watching the tournament very closely. Recently, he highlighted the importance of DRS in domestic cricket and reasoned how the system is exposing the flaws in the techniques of some young national batsmen.
Ashwin gave the example of Ricky Bhui’s dismissal of left-arm spinner Manav Suthar, where the batsman tried to defend the ball by keeping the bat behind the pad. The technique of defending by keeping the bat behind the pad was quite normal in the pre-DRS era.
However, technology has brought more clarity to decision making. As in this case, India D batsman Ricky Bhui was declared not out by the on-field umpire. But India C decided to apply DRS and the decision was overturned because the ball was hitting the pads first.
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Ravichandran Ashwin says Ricky Bhui has ‘faulty technique’
After observing the incident closely, Ravichandran Ashwin took to social media and called Ricky Bhui’s technique “faulty”. He cited the example of Ricky Bhui’s dismissal and claimed that the batsman would have been saved by this technique if there was no DRS.
“DRS in domestic cricket is not just about making the right decisions. Ricky Bhuvi’s dismissal last night against Manav Suthar is a classic case of a batsman getting away with this technique 10 out of 10 times in FC cricket. This was not a flawed technique before DRS but it is now. In the past, batsmen were not dismissed just because they managed to get ahead,” Ashwin posted on X (previously Twitter).
DRS in domestic cricket is not just about making the right decisions.
Ricky Bhuvi’s dismissal last night against Manav Suthar is a classic case of a batsman getting away with using this technique 10 out of 10 times in FC cricket.
This was not a faulty technique before DRS, but now… image.twitter.com/Ip2BXHgJBe
— Ashwin 🇮🇳 (@ashwinravi99) September 7, 2024
Ravichandran Ashwin hails BCCI’s decision to introduce DRS in domestic cricket
The legendary offspinner further added that keeping the bat behind the pad could be fatal and a young batsman like Ricky Bhui is not used to keeping his bat in front of the pad.
“Now, keeping the bat behind the pad can be fatal. Imagine someone coming into international cricket without having this experience that Ricky had yesterday. He might well need a full Test series to understand what he needs to work on and his career could be over. This is a fabulous experience for more reasons than one 👏👏 @BCCI,” Ashwin added.
Ricky Bhui’s dismissal was one such instance where young national batsmen are used to defending themselves by keeping the bat behind the pad. However, these batsmen are facing problems in adapting to international cricket due to the availability of DRS. Bhui was dismissed for 44.
Umpiring has always been under the microscope in domestic cricket over the years. However, the BCCI decided to introduce DRS during the 2019-20 Ranji Trophy season. The technology was introduced in the semi-final and the final. However, the technology was partially viable during that time as it did not have UltraEdge or ball tracking.
However, the BCCI has decided to introduce an enhanced version of DRS for the 2022-23 Ranji Trophy final. Currently, the technology is not available for the entire Ranji Trophy season but is available for important matches such as the semi-finals and the final.