We could have easily had them 30/3: Woakes

Chris Woakes shook his head in frustration and disagreement with the third umpire's decision. It was the 11th over of the first morning at Edgbaston when the fast bowler was certain he had claimed his second wicket of the game already when a nip-backer from him hit Karun Nair's backpad. Although the impact was outside the off-stump, it didn't matter - Nair had offered judgement to the delivery. Woakes was fully convinced that the ball came in enough to coax Ben Stokes to take the call upstairs.

Woakes's subsequent reaction stemmed from what the TV replay revealed next: the ball had only clipped the top of off-stump, leading to on-field umpire Sharfuddoula's original decision being upheld. He later reckoned that in such cases, where the batter doesn't offer a shot, the decision ought to go in the bowler's favour.

"I need to be careful: I've had some [decisions] go my way over the years," Woakes said in the press conference at the end of the day. "In general, DRS has been good for the game. A lot more right decisions are given [than before]. The only thing I would like to come in is that if a batsman decides to leave the ball and it's still hitting the stumps, I think that should be out - regardless if it's clipping or not."

Just a few overs before this happened, Yashasvi Jaiswal had a similar rub of the green with a close call that too was sent for a review. This time Woakes threw his hands up in the air - a reaction more to do with the lack of luck than the decision itself. Woakes struck Yashasvi Jaiswal on the front pad with a ball from over the stumps, but was convinced that it had pitched in line and was worth a review. Stokes discussed and contemplated a bit before giving in. The replays showed, once again, the ball only brushing the top of the leg-stump.

"We could have easily had them 30 for 3," Woakes said, in reference to both those calls. "It was a pretty frustrating morning, really. Obviously emotions run high when you are desperate to do well for the team, do well for yourself and it would've been nice... had those decisions gone our way, the day looks completely different, but that is Test cricket and we move on."

There were grey overheads in Edgbaston before the start of the fixture but it still transpired to be a batter's day as India finished with 310/5,