Ishan Kishan Faces Criticism for Appeal of Hit-Wicket Against Latham Despite Removing Bails Himself

The incident involving Ishan Kishan sparked a lot of controversy and criticism, with many calling it poor sportsmanship on Kishan’s part. The incident occurred during the first ODI between India and New Zealand at the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium, where Kishan appeared to deceive the umpires into believing that New Zealand captain Tom Latham had been out hit wicket.

During the fourth ball of the 16th over, Latham went deep into his crease and played a ball off left-arm wrist-spinner Kuldeep Yadav through the leg side. Kishan, along with Indian captain Rohit Sharma, appealed for Latham’s dismissal, indicating that the batter had disturbed the bails by stepping on his stumps. However, replays checked by the TV umpire showed that Kishan had deliberately knocked a bail off with his glove, at his second attempt, long after Latham had hit the ball. The TV umpire declared Latham “Not Out” on the big screen.

On-air commentators Sunil Gavaskar and Murali Kartik were not impressed by Kishan’s actions, with Kartik stating “The cheeky grin is fine, but don’t think that was the right thing to do,” and Gavaskar adding “As a joke, it was okay, but then to go on to appeal, don’t think that’s the right thing to do. As a joke to maybe say, suggest to Tom Latham what had happened earlier when India was batting, that is understandable. But to appeal, that is not on. That is not cricket.”

The incident also brought back memories of a similar incident that had occurred earlier in the match, where Latham was involved in a similar situation in the 40th over of India’s innings, when all-rounder Hardik Pandya was dismissed in freakish circumstances. Pandya was attempting to cut a Daryl Mitchell delivery through the third man but saw his off-stump bail being dislodged as the ball passed extremely close to the stumps.