India complain about uneven bounce in nets, umpiring decisions after loss

India captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni said confusion over opener Shikhar Dhawan's injury had unsettled the dressing room in the crucial first hour of play on the fourth morning of the second Test against Australia on Saturday.

The tourists never really recovered after losing four second innings wickets in the opening half an hour in Brisbane and went down by four wickets in the second Test to trail 2-0 in the four-match series.

The India team issued a statement complaining about the uneven bounce on the practice pitches in the Gabba nets after Dhawan and Virat Kohli were injured warming up on Saturday.

Dhoni said he had aborted his own net session because of the conditions but said he was unaware of the extent of the injury to Dhawan's right wrist, which ultimately forced India to send Kohli out to replace him.

"It was quite late when we got back and saw Shikhar was not 100 per cent fit to bat so we could only give five to 10 minutes notice to Virat," Dhoni said.

"So that was something we could have handled better."

Kohli, who stood in for the injured Dhoni as skipper for the first Test defeat in Adelaide, looked less than comfortable taking to the field and scored one run off 11 balls before becoming the first of paceman Mitchell Johnson's four victims.

"That kind of scenario can create a bit of unrest, not like a typhoon coming sort of unrest, but the calmness of the dressing room goes for a toss," Dhoni added.

"It was a bit late to verbally resolve the situation, what we needed was some kind of partnership to go for 25 minutes and it would have gone back to normal."

As the Indian wickets tumbled, Dhawan was forced to cancel a trip to hospital for X-Rays on the injury and returned to the middle to resume his innings, scoring a team-high 81.

India's dissatisfaction with the Gabba nets was clear from the statement.

"Indian team has been asking for the fresh net practice wickets several times for last two days which not been provided instead of that, they have asked to practice on worn out wickets which has uneven bounce," it read.

Queensland Cricket later tweeted: "Australians say no problems with them and curator says they mirror exact state of the Test pitch in middle". 

Dhoni also says the 50-50 decisions are not going India's way after his team fell behind 2-0 in the series.

The tourists, who are against using the decision referral system (DRS) in the four-match series, had another contentious umpire's call with the dismissal of Ravichandran Ashwin in India's second innings.

Ashwin was given out caught behind off Mitchell Starc for 19 even though replays showed the ball hitting the top of his pads.

Dhoni stoutly defended India's reluctance to use technology to aid in umpire's decision-making, but said that his team were getting more bad calls than Australia in the series.

"There's a lot of 50-50 decisions that are not going in our favour," he said.
"We're on the receiving end more often than not.

"What happens in DRS, even if the DRS is around, those (contentious) decisions won't go in our favour.

"DRS is used often to justify the decision that's given by the umpire.

"What's important is to use DRS as a way of giving the right decision irrespective of if the umpire has given it out or not out.

"There are a lot of ways to use DRS. This is something that needs to be put in a specific way. You're adding too many variables to the game."

Dhoni said the level of umpiring in the series, with South African Marais Erasmus and Englishman Ian Gould officiating in the first two Tests, could be better.

"It can improve. There have been quite a few 50-50 calls where we have been on the receiving end," he said, while pointing out the difficulties the umpires are under during a five-day Test match.

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