Former England opener and ICC match referee Chris Broad slammed Javagal Srinath for allowing Harshit Rana as a concussion substitute for Shivam Dube. Former India cricketer Javagal Srinath was the match referee during India vs England 4th T20I where he allowed Harshit Rana as a concussion substitute for Shivam Dube.
Coming to the incident, Shivam Dube was in the original playing XI and smashed a fifty in the first innings to take India to a strong total but he was unable to come to the field during the second innings and India brought in Harshit Rana as his concussion substitute.
He made an impact with the ball and picked three wickets, but it did not go well with the English camp and their captain along with other experts stated that Rana was not the like-for-like replacement of Shivam Dube.
Broad took his 'X' formerly known as Twitter and suggested ICC to make independent match officials during a bilateral series.
"Independent match officials were brought in to stop situations like this! Why are the ICC returning to the 'bad old days' of bias and corruption?," Chris Broad, a former England opener, more famously one of the decorated International Cricket Council (ICC) match referees, said on X (formerly Twitter).
In another social media post, he had said that the ICC should allow only neutral match referees. "Absolutely agree," he wrote in reply to a query on the topic. "How can an Indian Match Referee get away with allowing this Indian replacement? Match officials should be independent to omit bias! (sic)."
Chris Broad has officiated in 622 games, third most by any ICC match referee after Ranjan Madugalle (798) and Jeff Crowe (656).
However, Suryakumar Yadav-led India defeated England 4-1 in a five-match T20I series and Varun Chakravarthy was awarded 'Player of the Series'.