“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?,” Broad said on X.

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.

‘Dube was clearly not concussed…’

The left-handed batter was struck on the helmet during the penultimate ball of India’s innings. He got out on the next ball and did not take the field in the second innings. Rana stepped up as a replacement but was only declared as Dube’s concussion substitute in the 10th over.

Taking to his column in Telegraph, Gavaskar lashed out at head coach Gautam Gambhir and captain Suryakumar Yadav as he reckoned Dube was not concussed.

He wrote: “In the Pune game, Dube batted right till the end after having got hit on the helmet earlier, so clearly, he was not concussed. So, allowing a concussion substitute itself was not correct. Yes, there could have been a substitute in case he had strained a muscle while batting, but that would have been only for fielding and he could not have bowled.

“Even by the most generous stretching of the like for like term, there was nothing such between Dube and Rana. With tongue firmly in cheek, one can say that they are the same height and have the same standard in fielding. Otherwise, there’s nothing like for like as far as they are concerned. England has every reason to feel done in. This Indian team is a superb team and doesn’t need its wins to get tarnished by such acts.”