RateTheRef

How interesting - seems like a rather silly appointment from the icc now, given his lack of on field.

Quote from: Alf1986 on Tue 23 Dec 2025 03:07

Have to say that the standard of umpiring in the Ashes so far hasn’t been great. Nitin Menon has been particularly disappointing compared to his performances over the last few years. What has been particularly disappointing is that many of the decisions haven’t been 50-50 calls with a small edge, glove near pads etc but instead have been howlers, big inside edges, balls going way down leg side, pitched outside leg or bat nowhere near the ball. All four of the umpires so far have had at least one of these howlers. Let’s hope it improves when the more experienced Gaffaney and Dharmasena take over in Melbourne.

Have quickly crunched the DRS stats to date-

Holdstock (2 Tests)- 3 overturned from 8 (37.5%)
Menon (2 Tests)- 6 overturned from 14 (42.9%)
Sharfuddoula (1)- 2 overturned from 6 (33.3%)
Raza (1)- 0 overturned from 6 (albeit aided by the Weatherald non-review)

So objectively for 3 of 4 an above average rate both for them personally and for the Elite Panel more broadly

Have to say that the standard of umpiring in the Ashes so far hasn’t been great. Nitin Menon has been particularly disappointing compared to his performances over the last few years. What has been particularly disappointing is that many of the decisions haven’t been 50-50 calls with a small edge, glove near pads etc but instead have been howlers, big inside edges, balls going way down leg side, pitched outside leg or bat nowhere near the ball. All four of the umpires so far have had at least one of these howlers. Let’s hope it improves when the more experienced Gaffaney and Dharmasena take over in Melbourne.

Saikat’s generally better than Joel Wilson and did make some decent decisions in this game but I’ve noticed he often lets himself down with a howler most matches. The Brooks out decision was a shocker, even the Australians barely appealed. Not sure he will survive on elite panel for long unless there are retirements

I would have preferred the experienced Kumar Dharmasena to umpire two test matches. Surprised they didn't have him in the umpiring team as the experienced umpire for the first three tests with Gaffaney playing that role for the final two tests. It would have required some reshuffling but it would be possible.

I consider Adrian Holdstock to be the weakest on the Elite Panel now that Wilson is gone and would have preferred he only did one test. Ahsan Raza (who is OK but can be inconsistent) had a nightmare in Bangladesh and is also doing two tests. I understand the need to give exposure to some newer names, but it's a major series which has been marred by poor umpiring in the past so would prefer the best available to get appointed more.

Sorry guys for the wrong information.
But at the start of the game , Commentators told  that Asif Yaqoob is the Third umpire. So I have put the information here.