'Umpires mein steve bucknor ki atma ghuss gayi hai' - Virat Kohli controversially given out LBW in 2nd Test against Australia

Former India captain Virat Kohli’s dismissal in the second Test of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy against Australia left Indian fans in shock and distraught. On Saturday, Kohli was dismissed by Australian spinner Matthew Kuhnemann for 44 runs off 84 balls in the second session of the day. He was given leg-before wicket by on-field umpire Nitin Menon which created a stir over social media.

In the 50th over of the Indian innings, debutant Kuhnemann was bowling to Kohli. On the third ball of the over, Kuhnemann trapped Kohli in front of the wickets and Australia made a massive appeal for LBW. As soon as umpire made his decision, Kohli referred it upstairs.

Ultra Edge showed a spike, although it was difficult to identify whether the ball hit the pad first or the bat. However, the umpire decided to take it as a pad first and the ball-tracker suggested that the ball would have hit the leg stump. The third umpire upheld on ground decision and gave Kohli out.

Virat Kohli couldn’t believe the decision and furiously walked back to the pavilion. Kohli, in his innings, added 59 runs with all-rounder Ravindra Jadeja for the fifth wicket. Jadeja was dismissed by Todd Murphy for 26 runs off 74 balls.

India under pressure at Kotla 

Earlier, in the day, India resumed from 21/0 and lost three wickets in quick succession. Australian spinner, Nathan Lyon proved to be a nightmare for the Indian top order as he dismissed the top three within a few minutes.

Lyon first trapped KL Rahul in front of the wickets and ended his patchy innings. Rahul scored 17 runs off 41 balls and added 46 runs for the first wicket with Rohit Sharma. Captain Sharma scored 32 runs off 69 balls before Lyon cleaned his bails. Lyon later trapped Cheteshwar Pujara for a duck. Notably, Pujara is playing his 100th test and he is only the 13th Indian to do so.

However, Kohli’s dismissal didn’t go well with fans and social media questioning the decision. A fan on Twitter questioned the rules and the integrity of the umpire too.

Here are some tweets: 

Jh@tu umpiring 😡😡😡

— Ritesh🇮🇳 (@rits2003) February 18, 2023

Terrible! Benefit of the doubt should have been given.

— Aakarsh Abhishek (@askakarsh) February 18, 2023

Nitin menon has biased against india

— chelchabilogujrati (@chelchabilogujj) February 18, 2023

Too much of doubt to call a Batsman out!!!

— khujliwaladoc (@getingunderskin) February 18, 2023

Kya unlucky hai isme bc, 3rd umpiring ki galti hai jarur but see how test match is played by England and That changed our watching test match

— Prince Raj (@bnprince007) February 18, 2023

Benefits of doubts always go in favor of batsman so it has to be not out

— Cricket Gallery (@cric_wikipedia) February 18, 2023

Ball is deviated towards the pads. It is more likely ball hits bat first .

— Ady (@i_m_adityagupta) February 18, 2023

On field umpire decision is very vital in this type of case. If it was given n/o, it would have remain so.

— SB (@sb_voice) February 18, 2023

Thats why bcci should implement the hotspot technology in india like Australia

— Kavinn (@_mrpeacemaker_) February 18, 2023

Bhai yeh umpires mein steve bucknor ki atma ghuss gayi hai..

They even forgot golden rule of benifit of doubt goes to batsman (virat Kohli)#INDvsAUS pic.twitter.com/ZRvOKIRRM6

— Vaibhav (@vabby_16) February 18, 2023