India vs Australia: ‘Don’t think anyone will fake something as serious as a head injury,’ Deep Dasgupta justifies Chahal’s inclusion as a concussion substitute for Jadeja

The debate over concussion substitute India had in the first T20I against Australia is getting heated up everyday with experts chipping in with their viewpoints. Former Indian cricketer Deep Dasgupta has backed match referee David Boon who allowed the inclusion of Yuzvendra Chahal in place of Ravindra Jadeja.

The decision was taken after the all-rounder took a hit on the helmet and suffered a delayed concussion during the 1st T20I against Australia in Canberra on Friday. Chahal’s inclusion clicked for India as the wrist spinner scalped 3 wickets to beat Australia by 11 runs and also bagged the Man of the Match award.

However, the hosts weren’t happy with the decision. Australia head coach Justin Langer had animated discussion with match-referee Boon during the mid-innings break.

Speaking in India’s favour, Dasgupta said that Kohli & Co didn’t break any law by having Chahal as the concussion substitute for Jadeja.

“I don’t think anyone will take head injury lightly and shouldn’t take it lightly. And I also don’t think anyone will fake something as serious as a head injury. Across all sports, head injuries are taken extremely seriously and I don’t think any team, forget about Virat Kohli’s team and the Indian team management, will fake it,” Dasgupta said on Sports Today’s YouTube video.

Dasgupta also explained the reason why Jadeja continued batting despite getting hit on the helmet. He said, “When you are in the heat of the moment the adrenaline is so high that more often than not you don’t feel the pain. You only start feeling the pain when everything settles down, when the heart rate comes down. And that’s when you start feeling the pain. It is very much possible that the concussion is delayed, that feeling is delayed and that could have happened with Jadeja as well,” said Dasgupta.

The former Indian cricketer also justified Virat Kohli’s post-match statement that Chahal was a ‘like-for-like replacement’.

“If you just look at like-for-like replacement then obviously India have an all-rounder in Jadeja and a bowler in Chahal. But if you’re looking at like-for-like for the remaining part of the game, that’s what Jadeja was going to do. He would have bowled 4 overs and that’s exactly what Chahal did as a spinner, bowled 4 overs.

“As far as the game that was still remaining, I think it was a like-for-like replacement. The match referee has full powers to decide what is like-for-like, in some cases the match referee has actually restricted the replacement from doing a few things. Like-for-like is based on the remaining part of the game and I think David Boon, the match referee, was absolutely right,” Dasgupta said.