When Dawid Malan's catch to dismiss Suryakumar Yadav sparked a massive debate over soft signal rule

England's former No.1-ranked T20I batter Dawid Malan on Wednesday, August 28 announced his retirement from international cricket. The left-handed batter, who will turn 37 on September 3, represented England in 20 Tests, 30 ODIs and 62 T20Is, scoring 4416 runs with eight hundreds across the three formats.

Malan averaged 55.76 in the one-day format, with six centuries to his credit. He last represented England in the 2023 ODI World Cup, scoring 31 off 39 against Pakistan at Eden Gardens in Kolkata. While the southpaw will be remembered for his impressive batting ability in limited-overs cricket, he also grabbed the limelight over a contentious catch taken to dismiss Suryakumar Yadav in a T20I.

In the fourth T20I of the India vs England series, Suryakumar, batting for the first time in international cricket smashed a brilliant 57 off 31 balls. However, his dismissal in the match played at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad turned out to be a matter of huge debate and controversy.

In the 14th over of India's innings, Suryakumar couldn't time a sweep properly off Sam Curran's bowling. Malan 'caught' the ball at deep fine leg, but since the catch was taken too close to the ground, the on-field umpires referred it upstairs.

The soft signal given by the on-field umpires was 'out'. Hence, the third umpire had to stick to the soft signal verdict since replays of the catch were not conclusive.

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Repercussions of the controversial Dawid Malan catch

Indian fans heavily criticized the decision to give Suryakumar out in the fourth T20I against England in March 2021 and vented their ire on social media platforms. Team India went on to win the match by eight runs. However, then Indian skipper Virat Kohli questioned the logic of having a soft signal in the wake of the controversy around Malan's catch to dismiss Suryakumar.

“If it’s a half-and-half effort and the fielder is in the outfield, I don’t think the umpire from square leg would see that clearly and make a conclusive call. So, the soft signal becomes that much more important. It’s a tricky one.

"I don’t know why there cannot be sort of an ‘I don’t know’ call for the umpire as well. Why does it have to be a conclusive one? Because then that overturns the whole decision completely. Similar to the argument we have with the umpire’s call as well,” Kohli was quoted as saying on the incident.

Facing massive backlash over the soft signal rule, the International Cricket Council (ICC) scrapped the law while announcing the revised ICC playing conditions that came into effect from June 1, 2023.