IND vs ENG 2025: Jos Buttler’s disagrees with concussion sub decision after loss in 4th T20I

England captain Jos Buttler was not impressed with match referee Javagal Srinath’s concussion substitute decision in the fourth T20I against India at Pune on Friday. After Shivam Dube was hit on the head by Jamie Overton in the final over of the Indian innings, India were allowed to have Harshit Rana as a concussion sub in the second innings.

Buttler said it was not a like-for-like replacement as Rana is a fast bowler whereas Shivam Dube is a batting all-rounder, who can bowl medium pace. Rana can easily clock more than 140 kmph whereas Dube bowls around the 120-125 kmph mark.

While Dube scored a match-winning knock of 53 runs off just 34 balls to help India post 181 runs on the board, Rana returned with impressive figures of 3-33 on his T20I debut. The fast bowler accounted for Liam Livingstone, Jacob Bethell, and Jamie Overton in his spell to tilt the game in India’s favor.

“Either Shivam Dube has put on about 25 mph with the ball or Harshit has really improved his batting.” Buttler fumed. “It’s not a like-for-like replacement, we don’t agree with that. It’s part of the game, I still think we should have gone on to win the match but we disagree with the decision.” The England skipper did not try to mince words after India won the game 15 runs to take an insurmountable 3-1 lead in the five-match series. The fifth and final T20I is at the Wankhede in Mumbai on Sunday.

“There’s no consultation. It was something as I came out to bat, I was thinking ‘who’s Harshit on for’ and I was told he was the concussion replacement, which I obviously disagreed with, it’s not a like-for-like replacement. They [umpires] said the match referee had made the decision so we had no say in it or any part of it. We’ll ask Javagal Srinath [match referee] some questions just to get some clarity around it.”

According to ICC Rules, a concussion sub should not give an undue advantage to the team and must be approved as a like-for-like replacement by the match referee.

“If the ICC Match Referee believes that the inclusion of the nominated Concussion Replacement, when performing their normal role, would excessively advantage their team, the ICC Match Referee may impose such conditions upon the identity and involvement of the Concussion Replacement as he/she sees fit, in line with the overriding objective of facilitating a like-for-like replacement for the concussed player,” reads the rule.

In the end, India registered a convincing 15-run win to take an impregnable lead of 3-1 in the series.