The debate over India’s choice of Harshit Rana coming in as a concussion substitute for Shivam Dube in the fourth T20I on Friday refused to die down with Chris Broad, one of the decorated International Cricket Council (ICC) match referees, alleging the International Cricket Council (ICC) of “bias and corruption.”

Dube, who had scored a half-century, was struck on the head by Jamie Overton on the penultimate delivery of India’s innings. Head coach Gautam Gambhir then effectively used the concussion protocol to field Rana in place of Dube, who bowls at speeds in the early 120 km/h range, much slower to that of the former.

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Rana, on debut, took 3 for 33, and India won the match by 15 runs, clinching the T20 series with a match to spare.

Broad, posting on X about the matter, said, “Independent match officials were brought in to stop situations like this! Why are the ICC returning to the ‘bad old days’ of bias and corruption?”

In a separate social media post, the former England opener called for the ICC to allow a neutral match referee. Javagal Srinath, who was the official during the fourth T20I, received heavy criticism. Absolutely agree,” he wrote in reply to a query on the topic.

“How can an Indian Match Referee get away with allowing this Indian replacement? Match officials should be independent to omit bias! (sic).”

Earlier on Sunday, before the start of the game, former England batter Kevin Pietersen wanted Srinath, former India fast bowler, to accept his mistake over allowing pacer Harshit Rana as a like-for-like replacement of all-rounder Shivam Dube.

“Concussion sub is quite the topic everywhere here atm and my view is…it was NEVER a like for like replacement and the match referee should just hold his hand up and say he got that one wrong. End of event for good and we move on to another great clash this evening (sic),” he tweeted.

Earlier, former India cricketer Ravichandran Ashwin shared his thoughts on the incident. He said, “Did we forget it was an international game and played an IPL match?”

“Because today all the discussion was on how Harshit Rana became Shivam Dube’s concussion sub? I can understand it has happened in the past too. In Canberra, Yuzvendra Chahal replaced Ravindra Jadeja. You can call poetic justice, or in fact poetic injustice. I don’t understand it. At least earlier, Chahal replaced Jadeja. Here, Harshit Rana replaced Shivam Dube,” he added.

“There is no role of the Indian or the English team. If there is no one in the squad, then you can say that Harshit Rana can bat a bit and Shivam Dube can bowl a bit, that’s why we brought him in. Like-for-like replacement Ramandeep Singh was sitting outside. I don’t understand,” said Ashwin.

India won the series 4-1 against England following a historic 150-run victory at Mumbai on Sunday.