Ravichandran Ashwin stunned by Harshit Rana’s concussion substitute ruling, calls it ‘pure cricketing miscalculation’

Jos Buttler’s contention that Harshit Rana was not a like for like replacement, as necessitated by the ICC rules, for Shivam Dube during the 4th T20I at Pune, has now received support from former Indian cricketer Ravichandran Ashwin who compared the decision to that of impact player rule in the IPL.

Speaking on his YouTube channel, Ashwin said,”The game is done. India capture yet another series at home. T20I has been a real juggernaut of a win. What was this game? It was like a replica of the IPL. Supersub was there, and the game was played with an impact player,” Ashwin said on his YouTube channel ‘Ash Ki Baat’.

“The entire discussion is about how Harshit Rana came in as a concussion substitute for Shivam Dube. Did we forget that it was an international match and play an IPL match? I can understand. It has happened in the past. Ravindra Jadeja got concussed in Canberra, and Yuzvendra Chahal came in as a substitute. I don’t understand this. At least previously, Chahal came in for Jadeja, a spinner for a spinner,” the former Indian cricketer added.

Ashwin points out ‘pure miscalculation’:

The veteran spinner went on to point out the problem with the concussion substitute call, stating that Ramandeep Singh was a like-for-like replacement for Dube and sat outside.

“Harshit came in for Shivam Dube. There is no role of the Indian or England team. If there is no one in the squad, then you can say that Harshit Rana can bat a bit and Shivam Dube can bowl a bit. That’s why we brought him in. Like-for-like replacement Ramandeep Singh was sitting outside. I don’t understand. This is a case of pure cricketing miscalculation, either on the part of the umpires or the part of the match referee. Ramandeep Singh was there, like-for-like for Shivam Dube. But not him. Harshit Rana was chosen as the concussion substitute. I think people in charge should look into this,” Ashwin added

Jos Buttler on Harshit Rana concussion substitute ruling:

England skipper Jos Buttler had also strongly criticized the call to bring in Rana as Dube’s replacment. He had said that Rana was around 25mph faster than Dube and had no batting ability.

“It is 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,” Buttler said.

Notably, Rana, who made his debut for India during 4th T20I, picked three crucial wickets during the match and helped turned the tide of the game in India’s favour with his four over spell.