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It’s been 12 years since the use of technology was brought in to aid umpires in making decisions. The Decision Review System, initially called as Player Referral System, was meant to rectify the howlers that at times could change the whole complexion of the game. Initially, limited technology was used and this did not help the cause for the visiting team. Hence teams like India were not in favor of DRS. However, with improved ball-tracking technology, ICC made it compulsory for teams to use DRS. Let us have a look at how DRS has affected the game through the lens of statistics. Comparisons have been made with respect to 12 years before the use of DRS began:

First test match with DRS was  India vs Sri Lanka 2008 Colombo Test. This will serve as the change point to split into two halves.

Period I : 12 years before DRS that is 23 Jul 1996 and 22 Jul 2008

Period II: 12 years since DRS

*In earlier days it was Player Referral system 

• Overall if we observe, the lbw wickets have increased slightly from 16.89% to 16.95% of total wickets. Can it be concluded that in a world dominated by batsmen, DRS has brought some relief for the bowlers who are getting more decisions in their favor?

How is the split between fast bowlers and spinners?


• Spinners have been getting more decisions in their favor. There has been an increase of 0.5 percent in lbw wickets since the introduction of DRS. However, for pacers, it has decreased by 0.9 percent

How is the split between different style of batting?


• Interestingly this has proved costly for left-handed batsmen but not so righties. There has been an increase of 0.9 percent in lbw wickets of left-handers. However, for right-handers, it has dipped by 0.3 percent.

In the next part, we will see how the bowling style off-break and leg-break and batting style combination interaction.

Stay tune !

By Staff

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