The first controversy in the 2025-26 Ashes was witnessed on Saturday when England wicketkeeper-batter Jamie Smith was given out after a delayed DRS decision by the third umpire in Perth. The incident took place in the 28th over of the second innings when he tried to glance a down the leg side short delivery from Brendan Doggett.
Smith got cramped for room in the process and instead pulled the ball into wicketkeeper Alex Carey’s hands, who went up after taking the catch, as did Travis Head, who was stationed at short leg. On-field umpire Nitin Menon gave it not out, and on Head’s insistence, stand-in captain Steve Smith decided to use the review.
Smith started to walk back to the pavilion after Real Time Snickometer (RTS) picked up a murmur in the first replay. However, it appeared that the spike had come after the ball had passed the bat, which made him turn around and get back to the middle.
“As the ball passes, there is nothing there. The ball already passes the bat,” third umpire Saikat Sharfuddoula was heard saying,
However, the Bangladeshi umpire delayed the decision and continued to watch the replays to gain full clarity before making the decision. He eventually concluded that there was a spike as the ball passed the bat.
“I can see a spike as the ball has just gone past the bat. I am satisfied the ball has made contact with the bat,” he said.
Sharfuddoula then told Menon to reverse his decision and Smith had to walk back to the pavilion.
Jamie Smith started to walk before coming back after this hotly discussed moment. So what’s your call here?#Ashes | #DRSChallenge | @Westpac pic.twitter.com/FpiqM6U6uM
— cricket.com.au (@cricketcomau) November 22, 2025
Simon Taufel weighs in
Former international umpire Simon Taufel defended the decision to give the English gloveman out, saying that the use of dual edge detection technologies could cause similar issues in the game.
“This is the difficulty when we have two types of edge-detection technologies around the world. Primarily, we use Hawkeye Ultra-Edge. In Australia, it’s one of the few countries in the world to use Real-Time Snicko.”
“It’s very difficult to come into a series with limited experience around how to judge RTS, but the conclusive evidence protocols with RTS [are that] if you get a spike up to one frame past the bat, that is conclusive. And in this particular case, that is exactly what was there.”
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“Unfortunately, he [Sharfuddoula] didn’t want to pull the trigger quite as quickly as perhaps he could have or should have. And the guys in the truck were doing their utmost to show him and to slow it down and to try rocking and rolling that frame. For me, the correct decision was made: a spike [on] RTS after one frame past the bat, the batter has got to go,” Taufel said on Channel 7.
Smith’s dismissal left England further in the doldrums and they were eventually all out for 164.
