India pacer Harshit Rana replacing Shivam Dube as a concussion substitute in the 4th T20I against England raised a few eyebrows, with experts suggesting that it was not a like-for-like replacement. Dube, a part-time medium seam bowler, scored a half-century in the first innings, was struck on the head by Jamie Overton off the penultimate delivery of India’s innings. India then effectively used the concussion protocol to field Harshit in place of Dube, who bowls at speeds in the early 120 km/h range.
On debut, Harshit’s spell proved to be decisive as he took 3 for 33, and India won the match by 15 runs. However, the decision to include him as a concussion substitute came under the scanner.
Now, former England captain Kevin Pietersen has taken a swipe at ICC match referee Javagal Srinath for taking the “wrong” call. Pietersen suggested Srinath should accept his mistake, calling for an end to debate which has been doing rounds over the last few days.
“Concussion sub is quite the topic everywhere here atm and my view is…it was NEVER a like for like replacement and the match referee should just hold his hand up and say he got that one wrong. End of event for good and we move on to another great clash this evening,” Pietersen wrote on X.
Concussion sub is quite the topic everywhere here atm and my view is…it was NEVER a like for like replacement and the match referee should just hold his hand up and say he got that one wrong.
End of event for good and we move on to another great clash this evening.— Kevin Pietersen (@KP24) February 2, 2025
Despite his heroics in the 4th T20I, Harshit was left out of the XI for the fifth and final T20I in Mumbai. Pacer Arshdeep Singh was rested, with veteran Mohammed Shami replacing him as the only change in India’s XI.
India XI: Abhishek Sharma, Sanju Samson (wk), Suryakumar Yadav (c), Tilak Varma, Rinku Singh, Shivam Dube, Hardik Pandya, Axar Patel, Ravi Bishnoi, Mohammed Shami, Varun Chakravarthy.
England XI: Phil Salt (wk), Ben Duckett, Jos Buttler, Harry Brook, Liam Livingstone, Jacob Bethell, Jamie Overton, Brydon Carse, Jofra Archer, Adil Rashid, Mark Wood.