Legendary batsman Sunil Gavaskar does not have kind words for Team India captain Virat Kohli.
In the ongoing five-match series in England, Kohli hasn't been in great touch, scoring a paltry 20 in India's second innings at Lord's. Being critical of Kohli's technique, Gavaskar said, "That method has been successful for him. He has got 8000 Test runs with that back and across movement. But he is playing at deliveries way outside off stump and a little too early in the innings. This time around, the foot is somewhere else, the bat is somewhere else, which means that he hasn't really played well."
On Saturday, Gavaskar gave a thumbs up to the quality of umpiring by the Englishmen in the ongoing Test series but said he would still prefer neutral umpires. The ICC had made it mandatory to have one neutral umpire in a Test in 1994 before making it two for a match in 2002.
However, due to the travel restrictions with regards to the Covid-19 pandemic, it had temporarily allowed home umpires to officiate in all the World Test Championships matches.
"I would still want to see neutral umpires because after you exhaust your 2-3 reviews, there could still be a decision that could be game-turning," said the former India skipper while commentating during day three of the second Test.
"To avoid the finger of bias, you should have neutral umpires."
Gavaskar said he is happy with the on-field decisions taken by the home umpires in the ongoing series and the series in Australia in January.
"The quality of umpiring in this series (between India and England) as well as in Australia has been brilliant. Can't say that about it during our (playing) days though," he said.
Michael Gough and Richard Illingworth are the two on-field umpires in the second Test, while Richard Kettleborough and Chris Broad are the third umpire and match referee respectively.
(With PTI inputs)